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Sharks dogged in return
home S.J. loses more ground in playoff
race 3/30/06 - by Mike Lee
The odds
were not in the Sharks favor entering Thursday night's game against the
visiting Phoenix Coyotes. For whatever reason, San Jose never seems to find a
way to win the first home game after a long road trip. Add the fact that the
Coyotes have owned the Sharks this season, and you have a recipe for disaster.
One of those factors was probably enough to sink the Sharks, who fell to 5-2 at
HP Pavilion.
San Jose continued a disturbing trend of scoring first,
then rolling over to a hungrier team that has no business being hungry. Like
the loss on Tuesday in Columbus, the Coyotes have little to play for, but they
manhandled the Sharks rather easily. They also reeled off three third period
goals, like the Blue Jackets did against the Sharks to win handily.
Phoenix didn't have any explanation for the dominance they've shown over San
Jose this season.
"How do you figure it?" Coyotes head coach Wayne
Gretzky asked. "There's really no way to put a finger on it, but we've had a
couple of games where our goaltenders stole a couple of wins for us, and we've
had other games where we played well, but I don't have an answer. All I know is
that we've played pretty hard against this team."
Another cause for
concern is the fact that the Sharks top line has been silenced yet again. Joe
Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo and Nils Ekman failed to generate any pressure on
Coyotes goaltender Curtis Joseph and the rest is history.
Milan
Michalek and Steve Bernier did their part, combining to generate the Sharsk
lone bit of offense in the 1st period. After that, the Sharks disappeared for
40 minutes. Holding a 2-1 lead midway through the game, the wheels fell off.
Steve Reiprecht would score the first of two goals at 13:33 of the 2nd
period to knot the game at 2-2. Ekman would take a tripping penalty to end the
period and Reiprecht would capitalize at the start of the 3rd period with a
power play tally.
Mike Johnson would provide some breathing room
midway through the period with his 15th of the season, beating Evgeni Nabokov
with an unassisted goal on a slapper from 35 feet out after Thornton turned the
puck over in his own zone.
"No, it doesn't make any sense why we do so well,"
Johnson acknowledged. "They have a great team. Somebody (might say) they have a
better team than us. There's no magic answer, or we'd be doing it against every
team. By no means do we have their number, but something's working."
Mike Comrie would add an empty net goal late.
The Sharks seemed
puzzled by the fact that they couldn't sustain the level of energy required to
be competitive.
"They were really important points tonight, and we let
them slip away," defenseman Scott Hannan said. "We've got to come out with more
intensity from the first shift. I haven't played the way I need to play, and I
have to step it up."
Notes:
Center Alyn McCauley sat out with
an undisclosed lower-body injury, ending his streak of consecutive games played
at 169
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
PHO |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
SJ |
1 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
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1st period - 1, San
Jose, Michalek 16 (Bernier), 12:26. 2, Phoenix, Kvasha 13 (Johnson), 13:55. 3,
San Jose, Bernier 11 (Michalek, Marleau), 15:56. |
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2nd period -
4, Phoenix, Reinprecht 17 (Michalek), 13:33. |
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3rd period - 5, Phoenix,
Reinprecht 18 (Doan, Ballard), 1:18, (pp). 6, Phoenix, Johnson 15 (unassisted),
9:57. 7, Phoenix, Comrie 27 (Kvasha, Johnson), 19:29, (en). |
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1st period - Comrie, PHO
(tripping), 6:35; Gratton, PHO, major (fighting), 16:01; Thornton, SJS, major
(fighting), 16:01. |
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2nd period - Spiller,
PHO (hooking), 5:00; Thornton, SJS (hooking), 8:40; Morris, PHO (hooking),
11:13; Seidenberg, PHO (tripping), 12:34; Ekman, SJS (interference), 13:01;
Saprykin, PHO (hooking), 15:07; Ekman, SJS (tripping), 19:38. |
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3rd period - Carle, SJS
(interference), 2:54; Nash, PHO (hooking), 6:01; Kvasha, PHO (roughing), 9:57;
Thornton, SJS (roughing), 9:57. |
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Shots |
Saves |
PHO - Joseph |
29 |
27 |
SJ - Nabokov |
27 |
23 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
PHO |
7 |
7 |
14 |
28 |
SJ |
9 |
6 |
14 |
29 |
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Referees: Wes McCauley, Chris
Rooney. Linesmen: Mike Cvik, Jay Sharrers. |
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