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WCQF Game 5: Sharks win to see
another day
Tomas Hertl and Martin Jones lead San
Jose to 5-2 win
The Sharks margin of error is now zero if they want
to keep their season alive. Having already dropped three games to the Vegas
Golden Knights in their Western Conference Quarter Finals match-up, San Jose
can not afford any more let downs this season. Thursday night's Game 5 contest
at SAP Center felt more like Game 1, when San Jose dictated play and skated
with a resounding win. San Jose jumped on the Knights early, and managed their
lead en route to a 5-2 win before a sellout crowd.
San Jose relied on
a more balanced attack which kept the Knights deadly second line in check all
night long. The return of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Joe Thornton also provided a
boost, by adding seasoned players who helped calm the Sharks.
It would
have been easy for the Sharks to press too much and then skate past the
objective. The veteran leadership helped San Jose eliminate the defensive gaffs
that have seemingly bitten the Sharks time after time in the series.
Martin Jones also played his best game of the series, making not only the
routine saves, but also the spectacular. Jones faced his fair share of shots
early in the game, but he got past the vaunted 5 minute mark, then settled in
from there.
Tomas Hertl scored 1:16 into the game when he took an Erik
Karlsson at center ice and skated into the Knights zone, before uncorking a
shot from the left dot that evaded Marc-Andre Fleury. Hertl used defenseman
Shea Theodore as a partial screen, before firing a shot high on Fleury that
caught the upper-right corner of the net.
Logan Couture pushed the
Sharks lead to 2-0 at the 11 minute mark of the opening period when he jammed a
loose puck home after Timo Meier raced in on net and tried pushing a puck past
Fleury. Meier drove hard to the net after splitting two Knight defenders,
moving the puck up to his stick with a kick of the puck that ended with a shot
that buried into Fleury's right pad. The Knight's goaltender though the puck
had moved over to the right side of the net, so he kicked his right skate to
push over to cover the weak side of the net. He didn't realize that the puck
was still situated underneath his right pad. Couture spotted it and took a
whack at it, driving it over the goal line.
San Jose had all the
momentum, but referee Francis Charron shifted things with a questionable high
sticking call on Evander Kane with 1:43 remaining in the period.
The
hockey gods were not kind to the Sharks on the ensuing power play. Riley Smith
tried to pass the puck out to the left side from behind the Sharks net, but it
hit Erik Karlsson in the skate, taking a 90 degree left turn toward the Sharks
crease. The puck then hit Jones in the pad and made a second 90 degree turn,
deflecting over the goal line with 30 seconds left in the period.
It
was an unfortunate bounce, but it did not phase the Sharks.
Charron
would send Braden McNabb off for holding after he horse-collared Logan Couture
7:16 into the 2nd period, but the Sharks power play would fail to convert.
Barclay Goodrow wouldn't need the man advantage to score his 1st goal
of the playoffs. The Sharks forward was parked in front of the Knights net at
12:22 when Justin Braun fired a shot from the right point. Goodrow got a stick
blade on Braun's shot, deflecting the shot home as he pivoted from just outside
the right post.
Max Pacioretty took a tripping penalty at 13:44, but
again the Shark power play was unable to get a puck past Fleury. The power play
was a feeding frenzy of shots that Fleury either stopped or were denied by the
bodies that defended out front.
The Sharks out-shot Vegas 14-6 in the
period, but they would only bag the lone goal in the period.
After a
relatively quiet first 10 minutes of the 3rd period, things got interesting in
the latter half of the frame. Erik Karlsson was sent off for tripping at 10:15,
setting up on the second power play of the game for Vegas.
The Knights
used their limited chances quite effectively. Jonathan Marchessault converted
on the mad-advantage at 11:36, carrying a puck off the left wing boards before
snapping a shot from between the circles that eluded Jones. Braun was parked in
front of Jones and may have distracted his own netminder on the play.
Jones made the save of the game minutes later, when he lunged to his right with
a kick save that denied Smith, who tried redirecting a diagonal pass as he
skated in on the left post.
That may have been the most important play
of the game, because the Knights would have tied the game on the play. Instead,
it fueled the Sharks who would not misfire on their third power play chance of
the game.
Marchessault leveled Couture with 5:30 left in regulation to
the left of the Vegas net, resulting in the extraction of some of Couture's
teeth. The four on-ice officials huddled to decide on what to do, because there
was no initial call on the ice. As Couture picked up as many teeth that he
could gather, Charron and Gord Dwyer ruled that Marchessault was guilty of high
sticking. Joe Thornton was going crazy because he wanted Couture to come out of
the dressing room to show the officials his new oral void, which should have
warranted a 40 minute power play.
As it turns out, the two minutes
they did receive was more than enough for San Jose.
Hertl converted
his 2nd goal of the night with 5:15 to play. Joe Thornton fed the puck to Joe
Pavelski outside the left post. The Sharks captain tried to spin to his right
to face the net as dragged the puck into a shooting position. His shot attempt
deflected off Fleury and kicked out to the back past Pavelski, but Hertl was
there to scoop up the rebound and snap it inside the right post for the 4-2
lead.
Knights head coach Gerard Gallant mocked Charron with a thumbs
up and a smile as the Sharks celebrated Hertl's insurance goal.
Gallant pulled Fleury with 2:30 to play in an effort to fight back into the
game, but Pavelski iced the game with an empty-net goal at 18:14 to cap the
game's scoring.
Game Notes:
* Barclay Goodrow's goal
was his first career playoff goal. It also turned out to be the game winner.
* By forcing a Game 6, it marked the 4th time San Jose has done so
after trailing in a series 3-1. The last time was in the 2016 Stanley Cup
Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
* Max Pacioretty led all
skaters with 8 shots on goal. Reilly Smith was second with 6 shots. Logan
Couture and Tomas Hertl led San Jose with 5 shots each.
* San Jose
ruled the faceoff circle, winning 33 of 52 draws (63%)
* Tomas Hertl
recorded his second multi-goal game in the playoffs. He also accomplished the
feat in the 2016 Western Conference Finals against the St Louis Blues.
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think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| VGK |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| SJ |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Hertl 3 (E. Karlsson, Nyquist), 1:16. 2, SJ, Couture 3 (Meier, E. Karlsson),
11:00. 3, VGK, Smith 1 (Miller, Karlsson), 19:30, (pp). |
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| 2nd period - 4, SJ,
Goodrow 1 (Bruan, Ryan), 12:22. |
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| 3rd period - 5, VGK,
Marchessault 2 (Miller, Karlsson), 11:36, (pp). 6, SJ, Hertl 4 (Pavelski,
Thornton), 14:45, (pp). 7, SJ, Pavelski 2 (Kane), 18:14, (en). |
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| 1st period - Kane, SJ
(high sticking), 18:17. |
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| 2nd period - McNabb, VGK
(holding), 7:16; Pacioretty, VGK (tripping), 13:44. |
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| 3rd period - E.
Karlsson, SJ (tripping), 10:15; ; Marchessault, VGK (high sticking), 14:30.
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Shots |
Saves |
| VGK - Fleury |
28 |
24 |
| VGK - empty net |
1 |
0 |
| SJ - Jones |
32 |
30 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| VGK |
12 |
6 |
14 |
32 |
| SJ |
6 |
14 |
9 |
29 |
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| Referees: Charron,
Dwyer. Linesmen: Murchison, Devorski. |
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