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Preds power play pounds
Sharks Tough road schedule beginning to takes its
toll
Playing their third game in four nights, the
Sharks let the wear and tear of an NHL season show on Tuesday night as San Jose
dropped a 4-3 decision to the Nashville Predators at the Sommet Center in
Nashville . Squaring off against the NHLs worst power play, the Sharks
and their top ranked penalty killing unit surrendered a pair of power play
goals and were forced to play catch up all night.
The Sharks had only
given up 10 power play goals all season and Nashville has recorded a mere 8
tallies on the man-advantage, but the tables were turned by a Predators lineup
that was robbed of a point by the Sharks last week in San Jose.
San
Jose committed four minor penalties on the night, but the puck ended up in
their goal on half of them. Steve Sullivan started things off by scoring his
5th goal of the season at 13:19 of the opening period, after Logan Couture was
called for holding and Douglas Murray was sent off for tripping. Sullivan
placed a shot from the bottom of the right circle passed Sharks netminder
Thomas Greiss, who was making his 4th start of the season.
Former
Predator Scott Nichol would even the score before Murray s penalty
expired on a short handed chance 64 seconds after Sullivans goal. The
goal was Nichols first as a Shark, coming against Predators netminder
Pekka Rinne.
Jerred Smithson would put the Predators back on top less
than two minutes later with a wrist shot from 12 feet out in the slot.
A tripping penalty to Dan Boyle at 6:26 of the 2nd period would put the
Predators back on the power play, and Nashville would once again cash in. Ryan
Suter would send a shot in from the point and Joel Ward deflected the shot from
in front of the Sharks net to make it 3-1 Nashville .
A turnover by
Murray in the neutral zone at 10:57 would turn into another Predators goal.
Shea Webber intercepted Murray s pass, and moved the puck to Ward who
skated in on a 2-on-1 with David Legwand. Ward would slide a pass to Legwand,
who snapped a shot past Greiss, and the Sharks were suddenly facing a
three-goal deficit.
Joe Thornton would cut the Nashville lead to 4-2
with 41 seconds remaining in the period with his 6th goal of the season.
San Jose would fail to leverage the last second
momentum they seized with Thornton s goal when play resumed in the 3rd
period. San Jose would muster 9 shots on goal in the period, but Nashville
countered with 8 shots of their own.
Combine that with two Predators
penalties in the period, the Sharks weary legs bean to show.
The
Sharks were forced to pull Greiss late, which would net a Patrick Marleau goal
with 52 seconds left in regulation. Marleau deflected a Thornton shot past
Rinne, to pull the Sharks to within a single goal.
Thats as
close as San Jose would get. When play resumed following Marleaus goal,
the Sharks couldnt win a faceoff. They had two chances, but the Predators
perfect time to pull themselves even on face-offs.
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What did you
think of this game? Post your comments on the Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
SJ |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
NSH |
2 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
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1st period - 1, NSH,
Sullivan 5 ( Dumont , Suter), 13:19, (pp). 2, SJ, Nichol 1 (Ortmeyer, Joslin),
14:23, (sh). 3, NSH, Smithson 4 (Legwand, Ward), 16:06. |
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2nd period - 4, NSH,
Ward 3 (Suter, Legwand), 8:16, (pp). 5, NSH, Legwand 2 (Ward, Weber), 10:57. 6,
SJ, Thornton 6 (McLaren, Ferriero), 19:19. |
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3rd period - 7, SJ,
Marleau 13 (Thornton, Clowe), 19:08. |
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1st period - Couture, SJ
(holding), 11:44; Murray, SJ (tripping), 12:51. |
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2nd period - Boyle, SJ
(tripping), 6:26. |
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3rd period -
Vlasic, SJ (delay of game puck over glass), 0:36; Dumont , NSH (holding
he stick), 1:21; Suter, NSH (holding), 10:58. |
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Shots |
Saves |
SJ - Greiss |
31 |
27 |
NSH - Rinne |
32 |
29 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
SJ |
9 |
14 |
9 |
32 |
NSH |
14 |
9 |
8 |
31 |
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Referees:
Joannette, StLaurent. Linesmen: Murphy, Nelson. |
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