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Good luck tusk? Sharks overcome shaky start to stun Pens
Could Thursday night's game between the Sharks
and Pittsburgh Penguins been any weirder? The evening started with the
presentation of a Woolley Mammoth tusk, and ended with a poke check that locked
up a shootout win after an improbable comeback by the Sharks at HP Pavilion.
After an atrocious start, the Sharks found a way to battle back from a two goal
deficit in the 3rd period, and eventually win in the shootout 4-3.
Back to that whole tusk thing. Joe Thornton was honored before the game by his
teammates and the Sharks organization for a pair of milestones. He surpassed
the 1000 games played mark at the start of the recently completed 6-game road
trip.
Team trainers gave him a magnum of wine. The brass gave him a
silver stick and trip to an Oregon retreat. With all the obvious gifts taken,
Thornton's teammates were forced to come up with something more unique. Given
that, what's more unique than prehistoric fossils?
Hopefully Thornton
used some of that fat contract money to build a really big man-cave at home,
because the probability of his wife allowing him to set his newly acquired
Mammoth tusk on the coffee table is about as likely as the Sharks coming back
from a two-goal deficit in the 3rd period against a team as tough as the
Penguins.
Oh wait!
At least the tusk was polished. It wasn't
some oversized hairy tooth that you'd be embarrassed to hang in your man cave.
Oh contraire. I'm sure Mrs. Thornton is a very nice lady, but it could fall on
the baby, scratch the furniture, etc.
As for the game, it was as cool
as, well, a Woolley Mammoth tusk. Well, except for the first 124 seconds.
Pittsburgh's first two scores were a combination of an unprepared team
and some extremely bad luck. On Deryk Engelland tally 24 seconds into the
contest, the ugly came in the form of a horrific turnover by Brent burns right
in front of his own net. The unlucky came in the form of Antti Niemi losing his
stick right before Engelland's shot.
Evgeni Malkin's first goal of the
evening had more to do with Niemi being unprepared. At least Sharks head coach
Todd McLellan felt so, pulling Niemi in favor of Thomast Greiss. That move
would prove to be clutch, especially in the overtime period.
San Jose
found it difficult to generate any scoring chances early, because the puck
never left their own zone. The five shots they mustered on net in the opening
period were hard earned shots, but they came after San Jose hook off the fog.
The Sharks appeared to be standing still most of the opening 20
minutes in comparison to the Penguins, who were sparked by their early success.
Then something happened. Maybe it was a combination of Pittsburgh getting
complacent, and the Shark finding their legs. In either case, the sharks
figured out how to put some offensive chances together.
Two players
tried to spark San Jose, both by putting their mugs on the line. First Brad
Winchester dropped the gloves, followed by Ryane Clowe. Whatever it was, it
worked.
Patrick Marleau's goal was a thing of beauty. Working the
give-and-go, Marleau took a perfect pass from Martin Havlat and split two
defenders before snapping a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury.
The sellout
crowd didn't think Malkin's second goal should have counted, but they didn't
have the luxury of instant replay. A lengthy review by on-ice officials didn't
help matters. The arcane rule of not showing replays of opposing goals just
added to the confusion in the stands.
When Pittsburgh scored that
third goal, the air was sucked out of the building. Give credit to the Sharks
for keeping at it. The legend that is Ryane Clowe continued to grow after his
big goal. The backhand has become his specialty, which was put on display early
in the 3rd period. Clowe threw Fleury a curveball in the shootout, by going
forehand. Having scored his goal with a backhanded shot, it seemed logical that
he would mix things up in the shootout.
Jamie McGinn made the most of his limited time on the
ice, bagging his 1st goal of the season in clutch fashion. There was less than
5 minutes remaining in regulation and the Sharks had struggled to score all
night.
One thing to mention is that even with the horrible start, San
Jose didn't give up a single power pl ay opportunity to Pittsburgh. They did
incur a couple of minor penalties, but they were all offset by countering
Penguin infractions.
Maybe it was a matter of the referees just
letting two strong teams battle it out without the luxury of a man-advantage.
Whistles in pockets was most obvious in the overtime, when Clowe was blatantly
held in the offensive zone right in front of referee Justin St Pierre. San Jose
got away with a trip on Malkin at the other end of the ice moments later, so it
at least appeared to have gone both ways.
Big props to Greiss, who
used the poke check twice in the shootout, including on Pitsburgh's last crack.
Pascal Dupuis needed to score to extend the shootout, but Griess swatted the
puck away with a jab of the lumber.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
SO |
T |
PIT |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
SJ |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
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1st period - 1, PIT,
Engelland 1 (Malkin, SUllivan), 0:24. 2, PIT, Malkin 3 (SUllivan, Neal),
2:04. |
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2nd period - 3, SJ,
Marleau 3 (Havlat, Vandermeer), 2:37. 4, PIT, Malkin 4 (Neal, Letang),
9:37. |
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3rd period - 5, SJ,
Clowe 4 (Havlat, Boyle), 9:11. 6, SJ, McGinn 1 (Handzus, Boyle), 15:06. |
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Shootout - SJ: Couture
(miss), Boyle (miss), Clowe (goal). PIT: Letang (miss), Malkin (miss), Dupuis
(miss). |
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1st period - Adams, PIT
(fighting major), 18:31; Winchester, SJ (fighting major), 18:31. |
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2nd period - Engelland,
PIT (fighting major), 0:06; Clowe, SJ (fighting major), 0:06; Orpik, PIT
(interference), 13:52; Niskanen, PIT (cross checking), 16:06; Havlat, SJ
(holding), 16:06 |
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Shots |
Saves |
PIT - Fleury |
37 |
34 |
SJ - Niemi |
6 |
4 |
SJ - Greiss |
30 |
29 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
PIT |
15 |
6 |
11 |
4 |
36 |
SJ |
4 |
17 |
14 |
2 |
37 |
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Referees: Leggo,
StPierre. Linesmen: Cameron, Henderson. |
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