|
|
Signs of life Sharks score 3 goals in the 3rd in comeback
The Sharks looked poised to drop another game on
Thursday night, but a funny thing happened. They decided to play inspired
hockey. Staring at a 4-2 loss to the visiting Colorado Avalanche in the 3rd
period, the Sharks went berserk, ripping off three unanswered goals in a span
of 4:29 to win for only the 3rd time in their last 10 games.
San Jose
overcame a 3rd period deficit against Colorado on Tuesday night in Denver, but
the Avalanche ended up winning that game in the shootout. In that game, the
Sharks tied the game in the last minute before eventually falling. They would
skip the extra session on Thursday by scoring with reckless abandon.
"In between periods we talked about how teams have done this to us," said
Sharks captain joe Thornton. "Why don't we just turn it around for once? Shift
after shift we came at them and it just worked for us."
Colorado was
content to just burn clock as they entered the 3rd period with a 2-goal lead.
Brent Burns challenged those plans by scoring his 5th goal of the season 7
minutes into the period. Burns took the initiative and drove on the net and
punched home his own rebound after Martin Havlat stripped Jan Hejda in the
right corner and fed the big defenseman.
Joe Pavelski followed up
Burns goal with his 13th of the season 89 seconds later. Pavelski was the
benefactor of a rebound right on the Avalanche doorstep after Jason Demers
bounced a shot off Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov. Joe Thornton setup
Demers with a pass from behind the net.
"That is how a lot of goals
are being scored," said Pavelski. "The D did a great job getting shots through
tonight. We had quite a few opportunities. Jumbo had a few. We just missed on a
few, but it is definitely good to see guys battle back and get into the hard
areas to score goals."
Logan Couture put the Sharks up for good by
deflecting a Patrick Marleau short from the blueline. Couture parked himself in
front of Varlamov before lifting Marleau's shot.
Things looked peachy
for San Jose early in the contest. Ryane Clowe punched home his 7th goal of the
season on a put back after Couture fired a shot off the Russian netminder.
Things turned sour for San Jose after that.
Marleau was
whistled for holding at 5:18, before Paul Stastny deflected an Erik Johnson
shot on the ensuing power play. Stastny parked himself just outside the left
post and got his stick on the knee-high shot.
Burns took a high
sticking penalty with 70 seconds left in the opening period to setup another
Avalanche power play goal. Ryan O'Reilly poked home a deflection off a Sefan
Elliott shot from the blueline. Niemi setup the juicy rebound by stopping
Sefan's blast with his left pad. The puck trickled out to O'Reilly on the right
side for the easy put-back.
Michal Handzus tied the game 1:12 into the
2nd period by putting a one-time chance past Varlamov from the slot after
Havlat centered a pass from behind the Colorado net.
"He was very good tonight," McLellan said about Havlat
after the game. " You can't take that away from him one bit. He was good
defensively. He was good on the penalty kill. He created chances for his line
mates. We are really happy with that type of game from him. I think for him he
is still feeling his way through a new organization again. I have said it
before, we do expect more from him, but maybe this was his coming out and he'll
continue to go that way."
Colorado answered less than two minutes
later when Stastny converted for the second time. The young star grabbed a
winding puck off the end boards before stepping to the slot and backhanding a
shot past Niemi.
The Avalanche extended theor lead to 4-2 with less
than 2 minutes to play in the period when Daniel Winnik put a puck past Niemi.
Winnek had dropped the gloves with Clowe earlier in the period, before
extending the Avalanche lead.
"I don't know what to say," lamented
Hejda. " It was disappointing. We need to win games like this against teams in
our conference. There were just some big mistakes."
|
|
What did you think of
this article? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What did you
think of this story? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
COL |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
SJ |
1 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
|
|
1st period - 1, SJ,
Clowe 7 (Couture), 2:30. 2, COL, Stastny 9 (Johnson), 5:51, (pp). 3, COL,
O'Reilly 7 (Elliott, Hejduk), 19:49, (pp). |
|
|
2nd period - 4, SJ,
Handzus 3 (Havlat, McGinn), 1:12. 5, COL, Stastny 10 (Winnik, Duchene), 3:01.
6, COL, Winnik 5 (Stastny, Van Der Gulik), 18:21. |
|
|
3rd period - 7, SJ,
Burns 5 (Havlat), 7:00. 8, SJ, Pavelski 13 (Demers, Thornton), 8:29. 9, SJ,
Couture 12 (Marleau, Vlasic), 11:29. |
|
|
|
|
|
1st period - McLeod, COL
(fighting major), 2:09; Winchester, SJ (fighting major), 2:09; Marleau, SJ
(holding), 5:18; Quncey, COL (closing hand on puck), 9:32; Burns, SJ (high
sticking), 18:50. |
|
|
2nd period - Van Der
Gulik, COL (tripping), 4:20; Winnik, COL (fighting major), 7:25; Clowe, SJ
(fighting major), 7:25. |
|
|
3rd period - Braun, SJ
(boarding), 8:54; Bench, COL (too many men), 14:54. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shots |
Saves |
COL - Varlamov |
34 |
29 |
SJ - Niemi |
27 |
23 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
COL |
11 |
9 |
7 |
27 |
SJ |
11 |
12 |
11 |
34 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Referees: Kozari,
Peel. Linesmen: Amell, Cherrey. |
|
|
|
|
|