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More ragged play at
home
Sharks drop another game to doormat
The Carolina Hurricanes were supposed to be the
tired team, stumbling into HP Pavilion on Tuesday night, with little chance of
earning any points against the San Jose Sharks. So much for that scouting
report. The Sharks looked like the haggard club, being outplayed all night in a
lop-sided 5-2 loss. The game marked the second consecutive game that San Jose
has dropped a game to a Southeast Division team that failed to make the
playoffs last season.
It was also the third consecutive loss for a club
still searching to find their game. The Sharks still looked like a team
suffering from jet lag from the drop of the opening puck. After a Patrick
O’Sullivan tripping penalty put the Sharks on the power play at 5:46 of
the opening period, the special teams imploded for a second straight game,
allowing another short-handed goal. Eric Staal would deposit a Chad Larose feed
on a break 10 seconds into the penalty while down a man, and just like that the
Sharks were in a 1-0 hole.
San Jose would bounce a shot squarely off the left
post two minutes later, creating a scoring chance when the puck rebounded back
toward Carolina goaltender Cam Ward, hitting him in the back. The puck would
roll toward the goal, before Ward swept it safely out of the crease.
Erik Cole made it a 2-0 Hurricanes lead late in the period after the Sharks
failed to cover bodies in front of their own net. Jeff Skinner tried jamming a
wrap-around past Antti Niemi, but the chance was kicked out into the slot. Cole
pinched down the slot and snapped the big rebound home with 2:25 before the 1st
intermission.
More of the same would haunt the Sharks to start the 2nd
period. 3rd line winger Patrick Dwyer would give the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead at
2:43 with a put back after Niemi deflected a shot out to the slot. The Sharks
defense seemed unsure of who to cover, which allowed Dwyer to swoop in on the
deflection for his 1st goal of the season.
San Jose would finally get
to Ward, when Patrick Marleau deflected a Dan Boyle shot from the top of the
crease. Marleau fed the puck to Boyle in the high slot, before the defenseman
snapped a shot on net. Marleau crashed the net after making the feed, then got
his stick blade on the waist high shot for his 1st of the season.
Marleau would cut the Hurricanes lead to a lone goal
just over three minutes later with a nice shot from outside the left post. The
speedy forward took a feed from Devin Setoguchi in the left corner then drove
to the goal, catching Ward with a shot that bounced off the Hurricane
netminder’s right elbow and into the Carolina net.
Ward preserved
his team’s slim lead with a nifty glove save off a Setoguchi shot with 5
minutes remaining in the period.
All the momentum that Marleau helped
regain was thrown out the window 2:11 into the 3rd period when Douglas Murray
had his pocket picked in his own zone by Staal, who promptly sent to the puck
to Larose in front of the net for a 4th Carolina goal.
Joni Pitkanen
turned it into a laugher at 7:05 with a howitzer shot from the top of the left
circle that snapped past Niemi for the 5-2 lead. The sharks aided the goal by
coughing he puck up in the neutral zone.
Game Notes:
The Sharks
owned the faceoff circle and shot count, but that's all irrelevant when you get
beat by three goals. Joe Thornton won 13 of 21 faceoffs, but finished the night
a minus 3.
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| CAR |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
| SJ |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, CAR,
Staal 2 (Larose, Babchuk), 5:56, (sh). 2, CAR, Cole 1 (Gleason, Skinner),
17:35. |
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| 2nd period - 3, CAR,
Dwyer 1 (Jokinen, Larose), 2:43. 4, SJ, Marleau 1 (Boyle, Thornton), 6:34. 5,
SJ, Marleau 2 (Setoguchi, Murray), 9:46, (pp). |
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| 3rd period - 6, CAR,
Larose 1 (Staal), 2:11. 7, CAR, Pitkanen 1 (Kostopoulos, McBain), 7:05. |
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| 1st period - Ruutu, CAR
(slashing), 1:43; O’Sullivan, CAR (tripping), 5:46; Boyle, SJ
(interference), 6:34; Harrison, CAR (holding), 9:47. |
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| 2nd period - Corvo, CAR
(high sticking), 8:03; Nichol, SJ (boarding), 9:55; McGinn, SJ (boarding),
16:37. |
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| 3rd period -
Cole, CAR (roughing), 2:02; McGinn, SJ (roughing), 2:02; Marleau, SJ (hooking),
11:59; Babchuk, CAR (hooking), 14:19. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| CAR - Ward |
43 |
41 |
| SJ - Niemi |
31 |
26 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| CAR |
10 |
9 |
12 |
31 |
| SJ |
9 |
19 |
15 |
43 |
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| Referees: Kozari,
McCreary. Linesmen: Cvik, Kovachik. |
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