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Power play powers Sharks to
Game 4 win
Sharks convert on 3 of 4 man advantage
chances
The Sharks Western Conference Series with the Los
Angeles Kings was billed as one of the tightest of the playoffs. Each of the
first four games has been diced by a single goal, including Wednesday nights
3-2 Sharks win at SAP Center. San Jose scored the first three goals of the
game, then held on for a wild victory that gives them a commanding 3-1 series
lead in the best-of-seven affair.
After the smoke cleared, the Sharks
also had themselves a home victory. It also broke the trend of the visiting
team winning as had been the case after the firs three games of the series. The
Sharks hope that trend starts again, as the series shifts to Southern
California for Game 5 on Friday.
Both teams chipped away at each other
in the opening 20 minutes, feeling for a crack in the other team's armor. The
ebbs and flow of the game saw momentum shifts back and forth several times in
that 1st period. Los Angeles sustained the biggest push midway through the
period, but Martin Jones who stopped all 8 shots he faced in the period.
Jones former mentor, Jonathan Quick, made 11 saves for Los Angeles in
the period to keep the game scoreless heading to the first intermission.
Wednesday night's big win was attributed to a power play that lit up
the Kings. San Jose finished the evening 3-for-4 on the man advantage, due in
part to better puck movement, and a willingness to throw the puck at Quick.
That wasn't the case on Monday when San Jose went 0-for-5 on the man advantage.
The Sharks wasted little time working over the Kings penalty kill unit
after the first break. Jeff Carter put the Kings in a hole after taking a
roughing penalty 30 seconds into the 2nd period. Brent Burns made the Kings pay
by rifling a one-timer past Quick off a setup pass from Joel Ward.
The
Sharks got themselves in penalty trouble when Matt Nieto and Ward took
penalties 3 minutes apart. The Kings were on the power play for what seemed
like an eternity, but the Sharks were up to the task.
Rob Scuderi was
sent off for tripping at 8:42, setting up another San Jose power play goal. Joe
Pavelski converted on the ensuing man advantage for his 4th goal of the
playoffs. The Sharks captain slid down the slot toward the net as Joe Thornton
circled behind the Kings net with the puck. Thornton spotted Pavelski, sliding
a pass out to the top of the crease for a chip shot with a Kings defender
draped all over him. Quick almost stopped Pavelski's shot, but it flipped off
his goalie stick and into the goal.
Trailing by two goals, the Kings
didn't do themselves any favors to open the 3rd period. Jamie McBain clipped
Joonas Donskoi with a high stick to put the Sharks right back on the power
play. San Jose took all of 6 seconds to convert that power play into a goal.
Patrick Marleau scored what would turn out to be the game winning goal at 1:40
of the period on a nifty display of hockey skill.
With the puck
deflecting out to the left side of the net, Marleau controlled the puck with
his skate, pushing it out to his stick as he skated from left to right. Once
the puck hit his stick, Marleau flipped a backhand shot that lifted over
Quick's right shoulder to catch twine top shelf. The tally was the 61st playoff
goal of Marleau's career.
That goal was bigger than anyone expected.
The Kings didn't roll over after falling behind by three goals. Their
response was quite the contrary. Los Angeles went into attack mode, potting a
pair of goals to cut into the Sharks lead.
Trevor Lewis was credited
with his 2nd goal of the series a minute after Marleau scored. Lewis parked
himself in front of Jones and deflected a Luke Schenn shot after it hit him in
the right skate as he tried leaping to avoid it. Burns was locked up with
Lewis, who made contact with Jones, impeding the goaltender. Sharks head coach
Peter DeBoer challenged the goal, citing goaltender interference. An officials
review disagreed with DeBoer's assertion, so the Sharks lead was cut to 3-1.
Schenn added his 1st goal of the playoffs on another
long shot 4 minutes later to set off the red alerts. Schenn used more traffic
in front of Jones to slip a blast past the Sharks goaltender, and just like
that the Sharks were leading by the thinnest of margins.
San Jose
tried to clamp down on the Kings, but the scoring chances weren't totally
eradicated.
Los Angeles was forced to pull Quick for the 3rd time in
the series, which turned out to be as fruitless as in Games 1 & 2. Jones
stood tall, stopping 10 of 12 shots in the period.
Game
Notes:
* After the hit-fest that transpired in Game 3, the Sharks
and Kings toned things down, laying a mere 81 hits in Game 4. The two teams
combined for 100 hits in Game 3.
* Drew Doughty once again eclipsed
the 30 minute mark in ice time. The Kings defenseman has logged more than 30
minutes of ice time in ever game in the series.
* After getting
man-handled in the face off circle in the first three games, the Sharks finally
won the draws battle, taking 51 percent of faceoffs.
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think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| LA |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
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| 2nd period - 1, SJ,
Burns 2 (Ward, Vlasic), 2:09, (pp). 2, SJ, Pavelski 4 (Thornton, Marleau),
9:21, (pp). |
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| 3rd period - 3, SJ,
Marleau 1 (Couture, Burns), , (pp). 4, LA, Lewis 2 (Schenn, Versteeg), 2:49. 5,
LA, Schenn 1 (Kopitar, Gaborik), 6:44. |
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| 2nd period - Carter, LA
(roughing), 0:30; Nieto, SJ (tripping), 2:33; Ward, SJ (high sticking), 5:26;
Scuderi, LA (tripping), 8:42; Schenn, LA (roughing), 17:30. |
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| 3rd period - McBain, LA
(high sticking), 1:34. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| LA - Quick |
29 |
26 |
| SJ - Jones |
28 |
26 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| LA |
8 |
8 |
12 |
28 |
| SJ |
11 |
13 |
5 |
29 |
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| Referees: Lee,
O'Rourke. Linesmen: Cormier, Miller. |
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