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Road trip starts with a
thud
Sharks outplayed by Ducks in Anaheim
The Sharks kicked of their six-game road trip with
a lackluster performance against the Anaheim Ducks in Southern California on
Sunday night. Having dominated the Ducks in their previous five meetings this
season, San Jose showed little of the energy helped them win the season series
against Anaheim . The 4-2 loss made it back to back stinkers for the Sharks who
failed to distance themselves from the Chicago Blackhawks in the race for
Western Conference supremacy.
Chicago blew two third period 3-goal
leads this weekend, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday on a last
second goal and to the Washington Capitals in overtime on Sunday. Both of San
Jose ’s opponents this weekend sit well out of playoff contention, but
that provided little benefit as the Sharks dropped both games as well.
The hangover from Saturday’s late letdown to the
Florida Panthers seemed to carry over into the Anaheim contest. Anaheim wasted
little time getting on the score board. Bobby Ryan took a Ryan Getzlaf feed up
the left wing boards, then cut across the slot in front of two Shark defenders
before sliding a shot on net. Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov made the initial
save, but Corey Perry jammed home the rebound for the 1-0 lead.
Turnovers in the offensive zone would haunt the Sharks later in the period.
Anaheim took advantage of sloppy play when Teemu Selanne bagged career goal
number 599. The Sharks coughed up the puck allowing Saku Koivu to grab the
rebound and hit Sellane up the right wing. Selanne carried I past the right
dot, before snapping a shot over Nabokov’s left shoulder.
Things
got heated midway through the period when Ryan punched Dan Boyle in the back of
the head as the Ducks forward tried getting past the Sharks defenseman. Tempers
flared and both players had to be restrained for earning 10-minute misconducts.
A tripping penalty to Todd Marchant was wasted by San Jose later in
the period, then Nabokov made life even tougher by giving up a poor goal to
Lubomir Visnovsky with just under a minute remaining in the period. Visnovsky
uncorked a shot from the blueline that Nabokov had a clear look at, but the
puck split the netminder’s pads and trickled over the net for the third
goal of the period.
A Brad Staubitz interference penalty at 9:57 of
the 2nd period was exacerbated when Torrey Mitchell earned a trip to the box 1
:26 later. The Ducks had a brief 5-on-3 that seemed focused on getting Selanne
his 600th career goal. San Jose would kill off both infractions, but it killed
valuable clock.
San Jose failed to generate much of a push, again
because of penalty issues. Sheldon Brookbank gave the Sharks a power play at
6:14, but Joe Pavelski would even things up 7 seconds into the man-advantage.
The Sharks finally got on the board at 9:06 of the 3rd period, when
Joe Thornton netted his 18th goal of the season. Devine Setoguchi wound the
puck around the end boards to Jamie McGinn, who had cycled behind the Ducks
net. McGinn saw Thornton cutting down the slot and made a perfect feed to the
centerman for the redirect past Ducks netminder Jonas Hiller.
An
interference penalty to Patrick Marleau would kill what little momentum San
Jose had generated from the Thornton goal.
Once the Sharks did get
back to even-strength, Anaheim had an answer defensively. Hiller made a big
glove save on a Pavelski chance with 3:12 to play, keeping the 2-goal lead in
tact.
Ryan put the nail in the coffin with an empty-net goal at 18:47.
The only reaction that San Jose had for Anaheim was Douglas Murray leveling
Ryan after he got the shot off.
Jamie McGinn deflected a Kent Huskins
shot past Hiller with 56 seconds remaining, but it was a meaningless goal.
Game Notes:
Murray was back in the lineup after missing
one game after taking a shot off his foot on Thursday night. Marc-Edouard
Vlasic missed his 13th consecutive game due to injury, but he is traveling and
practicing with the team.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| ANA |
3 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
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| 1st period - 1, ANA,
Perry 24 (Ryan, Getzlaf), 3:27. 2, ANA, Selanne 20 (Koivu), 7:40. 3, ANA,
Visnovsky 13 (Sexton, Selanne), 19:05. |
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| 3rd period - 4, SJ,
Thornton 18 (McGinn, Setoguchi), 9:06. 5, ANA, Ryan 29 (Koivu), 18:47, (en). 6,
SJ, McGinn (Huskins), 19:04. |
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| 1st period - Visnovsky,
ANA (interference), 4:33. Heatley, SJ (roughing), 9:01. Boyle, SJ (roughing),
10:29; Boyle, SJ (10 min misconduct), 10:29; Ryan, ANA (roughing), 10:29; Ryan,
ANA (10 min misconduct), 10:29; Marchant, ANA (tripping), 14:57. |
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| 2nd period -
Staubitz, SJ (interference), 9:57; Mitchell, SJ (tripping), 11:23; Blake, SJ
(interference), 17:31. |
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| 3rd period -
Brown, ANA (high sticking), 3:35; Brookbank, ANA (tripping), 6:14; Pavelski, SJ
(high sticking), 6:21; Marleau, SJ (interference), 14:03. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Nabokov |
32 |
29 |
| SJ - empty net |
1 |
0 |
| ANA - Hiller |
33 |
31 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
9 |
10 |
14 |
33 |
| ANA |
10 |
13 |
10 |
33 |
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| Referees: Pochmara,
Leggo. Linesmen: Gibbs, Cvik. |
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