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Road sweet road
Sharks get back on track with solid win in Montreal
Don't even try to understand what's going on with
the Sharks. They've been a contradiction to everything you would expect from a
sports team when it comes to home and road games. Their inability to win on
home ice is offset by their impressive road record, which improved by a game on
Tuesday night in Montreal as they kicked off a 5-game road trip. What started
as a Canadiens shooting gallery, turned into a 3-1 Sharks win at the Bell
Centre. The victory was the 1st in 7 tries for San Jose in the month of
December.
The Eastern Conference leading Canadiens had every advantage
on Tuesday night, knowing they were facing a wounded Sharks lineup that had
dropped their previous 6 games.
Already stung by Logan Couture
re-injuring himself in Edmonton last week, the Sharks were without another
piece of their offense when Tomas Hertl came up lame in the pre-game skate and
was scratched with a lower body injury. That opened the door for Barclay
Goodrow, who was recalled from the Barracuda earlier in the day.
Montreal jumped on their wounded guests, skating circles around the Sharks in
the opening period. The Canadiens had a handful of quality scoring chances in
the opening 10 minutes, pushing the Sharks back on their heels.
Goodrow made sure the coaches would remember his limited opportunities, so he
went after Montreal's star defenseman P.K. Subban with a hit behind the
Canadien's net that was a borderline boarding infraction.
Former Shark
Torrey Mitchell took exception to Goodrow's hit pouncing on the Sharks forward
and locking him up in a headlock. The ensuing fight was more of a bantam weight
scrap, but it sparked the Sharks.
San Jose capitalized late in the
period on a miscue by Subban, who misjudged the space he had behind him,
allowing the Sharks to skate on a counterattack 2-on-1. Joel Ward carried the
puck up the right wing, wrapping a pass around Andrei Markov to Patrick Marleau
on the off wing. Marleau gathered the pass which was slightly behind him and
slid it past Canadiens goaltender Dustin Tokarski for his 12th goal of the
season.
The goal was a letdown for the Canadiens, who had controlled
the majority of the period but trailed by a goal heading into the 1st
intermission.
San Jose pushed their lead to a pair of goals 36 seconds
into the 2nd period when Joe Pavelski tipped a Justin Braun shot past Tokarski
from the inside of the right circle. Pavelski reached out and tipped Braun's
shot with his stick blade, changing the trajectory on Tokarski for his team
leading 14th goal of the season.
San Jose found their legs in the period, out-shooting
Montreal 13-8 in the period. Recently signed forward Dainius Zubrus silenced
the sellout crowd with his 1st goal as a Shark at 9:19 of the period with a
nifty set of hands. Zubrus took a Pavelski feed through the slot as he sat
perched outside the right post. Rather than taking the obvious shot from his
forehand, Zubrus pulled the puck to his right, going to the backhand and
lifting the puck past Tokarski for the 3-0 Sharks lead.
Zubrus has 6
goals and 5 assists in his last 10 games in Montreal.
Montreal head
coach Michel Therrien had seen enough, pulling Tokarski and replacing him with
backup Mike Condon. The move settled things for the Canadiens, but they
couldn't generate the necessary offense to pull even with San Jose.
Dale Weise provided Montreal with the only scoring of the night, when he took a
shot with 2:36 left in the middle period that deflected off Marc-Edouard
Vlasic's skate and redirected between Jones' pads.
Jones really went
to work in the 3rd period, stopping all 9 shots the Canadiesn threw at him. He
book-ended the period with two stellar saves. His kick save of a Nathan
Beaulieu blast from the left side4 minutes into the period prevented the
Canadiens from thinking about a comeback.
Tomas Plekanec had a wide
open net with 1:24 left in regulation, but Jones shut the door with that
familiar left pad, pinning it up against the left post as the shot arrived.
The Sharks netminder finished the evening with 26 hard-earned saves.
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think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
1 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
| MTL |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Marleau 12 (Ward, Braun), 17:34. |
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| 2nd period - 2, SJ,
Pavelski 14 (Braun), 0:36. 3, SJ, Zubrus 1 (Pavelski, Thornton), 9:19. 4, MTL,
Weise 10 (Subban, Beaulieu), 17:42. |
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| 1st period - DIllon, SJ
(roughing), 6:09; Goodrow, SJ (fighting major), 16:44; Mitchell, MTL (fighting
major), 16:44. |
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| 3rd period - Tierney, SJ
(cross checking), 1:37. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Jones |
27 |
26 |
| MTL - Tokarski |
12 |
9 |
| MTL - Condon |
6 |
6 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
3 |
13 |
2 |
18 |
| MTL |
10 |
8 |
9 |
27 |
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| Referees:
Sutherland, Joannette. Linesmen: Brisebois, Nowak. |
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