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Cheechoo's hat trick plucks
Thrashers
Sharks score 5 unanswered goals in
mauling
3/22/07 - by Mike Lee
The
Atlanta Thrashers home winning streak was abruptly ended on Thursday
night, as
the Sharks steam-rolled the host team 5-1 in a statement game at Philips
Arena.
Jonathan Cheechoo recorded his 7th career hat-trick and Joe Thornton
added 3
assists to lead San Jose to their second consecutive road win. Vesa
Toskala
turned aside 18 shots to earn the victory.
More importantly, the
win
gives the Sharks 96 points in the standings, just 2 shy of the Pacific
Division
lead, currently held by Anaheim. The Ducks had a 10 point lead over the
Sharks
and Dallas Stars two weeks ago, but not find themselves looking over
their
shoulder at both of their surging division foes.
Cheechoo
continued his late
season hot streak with another scoring outburst. San Jose scored all 5
goals in
the 1st two periods of the game, and coasted to their 46th win of the
season.
After Pascal Dupuis staked the Thrashers
to a 1-0 lead 8 minutes into the game, it was all San Jose. Dupuis fired
a shot
off a deflection from Bobby Holik past Toskala from the bottom of the
right
circle. The Sharks netminder couldn't plug the gap on the right side of
the net
after stopping a shot that kicked out to Dupuis on the right side.
Cheechoo scored his first goal at 13:10 on a sweet dish from Thornton
after a
clearing attempt from Eric Belanger hit a skate and rebounded back to the
Sharks in the Atlanta zone. Thornton calmly headed toward Thrashers
goaltender
Kari Lehtonen, then slid a pass across the top fo the crease to Cheechoo
on the
right post. Cheechoo easily buried the pass to knot the game at 1-1.
Milan Michalek added his 23rd goal of the season right before the 1st
intermission with a put back on a deflection in front of the Thrashers
net. Joe
Thornton tried firing a shot past Lehtonen from the left circle, but his
shot
bounced off Cheechoo, who was parked in front of the Thrashers
goaltender.
Michalek skated in and punched home the puck, which kicked out into the
slot.
Cheechoo would score his 2nd goal of the night on a
weird sequence midway through the 2nd period. As Scott Mellanby tried
carrying
the puck into the Sharks zone, his linemate Brad Larsen tried taking the
puck
away, which resulted in a turnover in front of the Sharks blueline.
Michalek
grabbed the puck, then fed it to Thornton on the left wing. Thornton
tried
uncorking a shot that Lehtonen stopped, but the puck bounced off
Cheechoo's
skate as it sat perched on the doorstep. Game officials ruled that
Cheechoo did
not intentionally kick the puck into the net, thereby awarding the Sharks
with
their 3rd goal of the game.
Bill Guerin would add more offensive
fuel
to the fire with a breakaway goal less than 3 minutes later. Mark Bell
sent a
pass up ice from the left wing boards deep within the Sharks zone to
Guerin who
was cutting across the Thrashers blueline. The Sharks forward slipped
past two
Atlanta defenders and controlled the bouncing puck before beating
Lehtonen.
Hartley had seen enough at this point, pulling Lehtonen for
former
Sharks goaltender Johan Hedberg.
Cheechoo capped the scoring with
just
under 3 minutes remaining in the period with his 30th of the season.
Thornton
and Cheechoo combined for a 2-on-1 break, but Niklas Havelid poked the
puck
from Thornton back into the high slot. Christian Ehrhoff scooped up the
deflected puck in the high slot then skated around Alexei Zhitnik before
backhanding a pass to Thornton on the left post. Cheechoo one-timed the
pass
for the capper.
Notes:
Mark Bell squared off
with Thrashers left wing
Jon Sim early in the 2nd period. Sim injured his orbital bone in the
scrap and
did not return.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
2 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
| ATL |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
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| 1st period - 1, ATL,
Dupuis 13 (Holik, Slater), 7:53. 2, SJ, Cheechoo 28 (Thornton,
Michalek),
13:10. 3, SJ, Michalek 23 (Cheechoo, Thornton), 19:02. |
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| 2nd period - 4, SJ,
Cheechoo 29 (Thornton, Michalek), 11:56. 5, SJ, Guerin 34 (Bell,
Marleau),
14:29. 6, SJ, Cheechoo 30 (Ehrhoff), 17:14. |
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| 2nd period - Bell, SJ
(fighting major), 14:35; Sim, ATL (fighting major), 14:35. |
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| 3rd period - Michalk, SJ
(high sticking), 14:57; Hedberg, ATL (delay of game - puck over
glass),
17:42. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Nabokov |
19 |
18 |
| ATL - Lehtonen |
9 |
8 |
| ATL - Hedberg |
23 |
19 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
12 |
13 |
7 |
32 |
| ATL |
6 |
5 |
8 |
19 |
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| Referees: Kerry Fraser, Chris
Lee. Linesmen: Pierre Champoux, Michel Cormier. |
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