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Sharks battle back to take Game 3
McGinn's major penalty almost jeopardizes win
5/20/11 - By Mike Lee -

The San Jose Sharks turned the tables on the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night at HP Pavilion, taking a 4-3 decision in a wild Game 3. The Sharks cruised for most of the evening, but a boarding major by Jamie McGinn gave the Canucks a 5 minute power play with 8:38 to play, allowing Vancouver to rally. The Canucks scored two goals on the lengthy power play to make things interesting late, but San Jose held on to cut Vancouver's series lead to 2-1.

McGinn's hit was borderline, catching Aaron Rome in the left shoulder and sending the Canucks defenseman crashing into the right corner boards. Bloodied, dazed and confused, Rome had to be helped off the ice by the Canucks training staff. The opportunistic Canucks then chipped away at San Jose's lead.

"I'm a player who finishes my checks," McGinn said. "I'm not trying to hurt anyone out there. It's unfortunate he got hurt. I tried to cut him and and I thought I hit him on the shoulder."

Special teams was the name of the game, as the teams combined for 5 power play goals, including the pair that Vancouver scored after McGinn's exit. The Sharks were one better however, having put three pucks past Roberto Luongo on the man-advantage.

One of those was Dan Boyle's tally at 6:46 of the 3rd period that turned out to be the game winner.

Even though the Sharks prevailed, the final 9 minutes was an unfortunate way to wrap things up. The Sharks stormed out to a big lead in the opening period on an about face performance from Game 2. San Jose skated like a team backed into a corner.

Maxim Lapierre was sent off for roughing 2:03 into the contest after trying to take Ian White's head off with a hit behind the Sharks net. The San Jose power play remained perfect in the series, scoring for the 4th time in as many chances at 3:56. Patrick Marleau redirected a shot from the doorstep, after Joe Thornton put a centering pass on Marleau's tape from the left corner.

Christian Ehrhoff opened up a nice sized cut on Torrey Mitchell, near his left eye, giving the Sharks a 4 minute power play.

San Jose made it 5-for-5 on the man advantage, when Ryane Clowe sent a put-back chance under Roberto Luongo's pads for his 5th goal of the playoffs. Dan Boyle had bounced a shot off the netminder, allowing Clowe to control the rebound.

The Sharks couldn't convert on the 2nd half of the penalty, but not before Thornton put a chance off another rebound just wide of the right post.

At one point San Jose was out-shooting Vancouver 15-1.

Marleau made it 3-0 Sharks off a breakaway chance after stripping Alex Edler of the puck at his own blueline. The speedy Sharks forward raced up ice uncontested and lifted a shot over Luongo's glove hand for his 7th goal of the playoffs.

"Things are just starting to go in," Marleau said. "I'm playing with some pretty good players obviously, the best passer in the league. I'm just getting to some good areas and he's finding me, and the puck's starting to go in."

Devin Setoguchi almost cost the Sharks with a bad pass deep in his own zone, that floated out to Mason Raymond for a scoring chance that Antii Niemi denied with a big save. The play materialized with 5 seconds left in the period, so a Canucks goal would have given Vancouver some jump to start the 2nd period.

Aaron Rome hauled down Jamie McGinn in front of the Canucks net to earn a 2 minute break at 3:20 of the 2nd period. The Canucks had the best scoring chance after Rome exited the box and fed Maxim Lapierre in front of the Sharks net for a backhand chance that Niemi was forced to glove.

Luongo made a spectacular save on a 2-on-0 break, stoning Andrew Desjardins. Jamie McGinn setup the nice scoring chance with a feed from the left side, and also drew a hooking penalty on Kevin Bieksa to put the Sharks back on the power play.

Joe Pavelski evened things up with an interference penalty a minute later.

Bieksa took a cross checking penalty in front of the Sharks net, to put the Sharks on the power play for the 6th time in the game. San Jose failed to get another puck past Luongo, but not for a shortage of rubber being thrown his way.

Andrew Desjardins and Thornton took holding the stick penalties 34 seconds apart to give the Canucks a 5-on-3 power play. Niemi made a nice save on Alex Burrows early in the penalty.

Desjardins made a rookie mistake, tripping up a Canuck right after stepping out of the penalty box. That kept the Sharks down by 2 skaters for another 30 seconds, but the Sharks special teams came up huge, killing off all three penalties to keep the lead at 3 goals. Douglas Murray and Pavelski anchored the kill, each averaging 9 minutes of ice time on the penalty kill through two periods.

"They didn't capitalize on theirs (5-on-3)," said Thornton."You never know. It's "

Vancouver scratched out a goal 69 seconds into the 3rd period after Dan Boyle sent a bad backhand pass up the middle of the ice from the front of his own net. Niemi didn't help matters by falling before Burrows intercepted the weak pass and fired it home to make it a 3-1 game.

"They didn't capitalize on theirs (5-on-3)," said Thornton."You never know. It's 3-1 up to that point, you don't know that that's going to be the game winner."

Kesler and Burrows traded tripping penalties 25 seconds apart to give San Jose a 5-on-3 chance. Dan Boyle pumped home his 3rd goal of the playoffs from the high slot before Burrows penalty expired. San Jose didn't convert on the second chance, but the damage had been done.

"They didn't capitalize on theirs (5-on-3)," said Thornton."You never know. It's 3-1 up to that point, you don't know that that's going to be the game winner."

Rome continued the penalty parade with a cross checking penalty at 8:27. Setoguchi missed on a great chance after taking a centering feed from Thornton and slicing to the net.

After McGinn ended Rome's evening, The Canucks went to work.

Dan Hamhuis deposited a cross-ice pass from Henrik Sedin early in the power play, then Bieksa sent a shot that deflected off Ian White and into the goal 2:25 later to cut the Sharks lead to 4-3.

Vancouver pulled Luongo with 1:40 remaining, but Bieksa was forced to hook Ryane Clowe to prevent a goal. Lapierre was also sent packing for jawing, earning a 10-minute misconduct.

Game Notes



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Scoring
1 2 3 T
VAN 0 0 3 3
SJ 3 0 1 4
1st period - 1, SJ, Marleau 6 (Thornton, Setoguchi), 3:56, (pp). 2, SJ, Clowe 5 (Boyle, White), 8:22, (pp). 3, SJ, Marleau 7 (Thornton), 17:25.
2nd period - None.
3rd period - 4, VAN, Burrows 5 (unassisted), 1:09. 5, SJ, Boyle 3 (Marleau, Thornton), 6:46, (pp). 6, VAN, Hamhuis 1 (H. Sedin), 13:39, (pp). 7, VAN, Bieksa 4 (Raymond, Hansen), 16:04.
Penalties
1st period - Lapierre, VAN (roughing), 2:03; Ehrhoff, VAN (high sticking - double minor), 6:54.
2nd period - Rome, VAN (hooking), 3:20; Bieksa, VAN (hooking), 6:34; Pavelski, SJ ( interference), 7:47; Bieksa, VAN (cross checking), 10:30; Desjardins, SJ (holding the stick), 14:27; Thornton, SJ (holding the stick), 15:01; Desjardins, SJ (tripping), 16:32.
3rd period - Kesler, VAN (tripping), 5:02; Burrows, VAN (tripping), 5:27; Rome, VAN (cross checking), 8:27; McGinn, SJ (boarding major), 11:22; McGinn, SJ (game misconduct), 11:22; Bieksa, VAN (hooking), 19:09; Lapieere, VAN (10 min misconduct), 19:09; Kesler, VAN (slashing), 20:00.
Goaltending
Shots Saves
VAN - Luongo 38 34
SJ - Niemi 30 27
Shots On Goal
1 2 3 T
VAN 8 13 9 30
SJ 16 14 8 38
Power Play Conversion
VAN 2 of 7
SJ 3 of 10
3 Stars of the Game
Joe Thornton
Patrick Marleau
Douglas Murray
Attendence
17,562
Officials
Referees: Watson, O'Rourke. Linesmen: Miller, Racicot.
Holiday Gifts at BustedTees

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