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Donskoi saves the
day SJ win wild game in overtime after Finnish
winger ties game late
The Sharks returned from the collective bargaining
induced bye week to officially wrap up the first half of the season with their
41st game of the season at SAP Center on Saturday night. The schedule makers
made things easy for San Jose by allowing them to ease back into things with a
game against the worst team in the NHL in the Arizona Coyotes. They made it
difficult on themselves by ignoring any semblance of defense in the game and
were forced to scratch out a nail biting goal in the waning moments of
regulation just to tie the game. They salvaged two points with a goal in
overtime to win a heart-stopping 6-5 decision over Arizona.
There are
two ways to interpret the Sharks performance. They either battled back and
showed the perseverance to overcome a late deficit to win a key game, or they
barely squeaked by an opponent they should have man-handled. Regardless, they
kept pace with the close race in the Western Conference that positions them 6
points out of 3rd place, and 1 point of 12th place.
San Jose currently
sits in 9th spot in the West, out of a playoff spot. They still have games in
hand over several teams ahead of them, so they could make up spots, but there's
still a half a season to play.
The Sharks looked as if they were going
to will themselves to a win on offense alone in the opening period, when they
scored three goals. The issue was that they also allowed Arizona to counter
with three goals of their own.
Joe Thornton opened the game's scoring
5:53 into the game by wristing a shot from the front of the net after Joe
Pavelski intercepted a clearing attempt along the end boards and immediately
moving the puck to Thornton.
Derek Stepan countered 3 minutes later
with his 9th goal of the season, throwing a puck at Martin Jones from the
bottom of the right circle after pivoting away from the net. The shot came from
a tight angle, but Jones couldn't stop the puck from bouncing off this shoulder
before finding the back of the goal.
Joe Pavelski converted the Sharks
only power play of the evening at 10:59, by whipping a shot from the top of the
right circle, catching Coyotes goaltender Scott Wedgewood on the inside of the
right pad. The puck trickled through Wedgewood's pads for Pavelski's 9th goal
of the season.
Alex Goligoski made it a 2-2 game 81 seconds later,
ripping a shot from the right side that evaded Jones.
Donskoi had a
career night, scoring a pair of goals and adding an assist on one of the most
impressive goals of the season. Logan Couture was credited with his 17th goal
of the season, but he really played a supporting role on the tally. Donskoi
grabbed a feed at the Coyotes blueline, then fought off Oliver Ekman-Larsson
and Kevin Connauton as he tried to keep control of the puck on his way to the
goal. Donskoi finally sent a backhand pass through Ekman-Larsson's legs to
Couture on the off wing for the easy deposit.
The euphoria of Couture's goal was quickly erased when
Christian Fischer raced around the Sharks defense on the left wing and put a
backhand past Jones. That would end the netminder's evening as Sharks head
coach Peter DeBoer inserted Aaron Dell in net.
That Donskoi magic
pushed the Sharks back in the lead late in the 2nd period. Mikkel Boedker saw
his Finnish linemate loitering at the Coyotes blueline, before sending an 80
foot pass to him. Donskoi couldn't control the pass as it deflected off his
stick, heading toward the Arizona net. Wedgewood tried to skate out to the high
slot to clear the puck, but Donskoi beat him to it, chipping it over the
goaltender's stick and into the Arizona goal.
Arizona turned the
tables on San Jose by scoring a pair of goals early in the 3rd period to grab a
5-4 lead. The Sharks were forced to pull Dell late in the period in order to
score the equalizer.
They did exactly that when Donskoi stuffed home a
loose puck while perched off the left post with 15.8 seconds left in
regulation. Brent Burns had fired a shot from the right point that Wedgewood
stopped, but didn't control. Donskoi fished the puck out of the goaltender's
pads and slid home to tie the game for the 5th time on the night.
Arizona took a peculiar approach to overtime, trying to wait out the Sharks for
some reason in hope San Jose would sub off their starters. They never advanced
the puck past the midline, so the Sharks were left to end things.
That
would happen when Thornton caught Pavelski sliding in on net uncontested.
Pavelski gathered a feed then tried to put a shot past Wedgewood as he skated
across the goal mouth from left to right. Wedgewood made a spectacular save,
but Marc-Edouard Vlasic raced in and punched home the puck for the improbable
comeback win.
Game Notes:
* Joe Thornton moved into
17th place on the NHL All-Time Scoring list, with his 3 point now.
*
Even with all the Sharks scoring, Melker Karlsson and Barclay Goodrow has
nightmare games, both finishing with a -4 on the night. The pair were
essentially benched in the 3rd period, and were limited to 14 shifts on the
night each.
* The game was a sellout, a rare occurrence for the Sharks
this season. The Warriors helped by bringing their two World Championships to
the game and lending their logo to a co-branded Sharks-Warriors jersey that was
given to each fan in attendance.
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What did you
think of this story? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
ARI |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
SJ |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
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1st period - 1, SJ,
Thornton 9 (Pavelski), 5:53. 2, ARI, Stepan 9 (Perlini, Panik), 9:01. 3,
Pavelski 9 (Burns, Thornton), 10:59, (pp). 4, ARI, Goligoski 5 (Stepan), 12:16.
5, SJ, Couture 17 (Donskoi, Burns), 13:37. 6, ARI, Fischer 12 (Connauton),
14:01. |
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2nd period - 7, SJ,
Donskoi 9 (Boedker, Dell), 17:07. |
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3rd period - 8, ARI,
Ekman-Larsson 7 (Dvorak, Keller), 3:31. 9, ARI, Archibald 3 (Chychrun, Dvorak),
6:22. 10, SJ, Donskoi 10 (Burns, Tierney), 19:44. |
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Overtime - 11, SJ,
Vlasic 5 (Pavelski, Thornton), 2:42. |
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1st period - Stepan, ARI
(cross checking), 10:51. |
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2nd period - Labanc, SJ
(high sticking), 8:30. |
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Shots |
Saves |
ARI - Wedgewood |
44 |
38 |
SJ - Jones |
6 |
3 |
SJ - Dell |
15 |
13 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
ARI |
9 |
5 |
7 |
0 |
21 |
SJ |
16 |
11 |
13 |
4 |
44 |
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Referees: Kowal,
Chmielewski. Linesmen: Daisy, Murchison. |
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