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Panthers expose plenty of
holes
Defensive lapses run rampant in 5-3 loss to
Florida
The Florida Panthers have been one of the biggest
surprises in the NHL this season, but the haphazard play of the Sharks defense
overshadowed everything on Saturday night. San Jose's blueline corps played
arguably their worst game of the season, handing the Panthers their league best
9th road win of the season. The Panthers took advantage of a gaggle of Shark
miscues and the league's worst penalty kill to win 5-3 at HP Pavilion.
Perhaps it's just a hex. San Jose hasn't defeated the Panthers since 2006,
which is saying something considering that Florida hasn't qualified for the
playoffs in ten years.
“I think we gave them that game on couple
of soft, stupid plays of us. Stupid “D”," said Dan Boyle, who had a
tough night.
The Sharks took a 2-1 lead into the 2nd period, then the
defense went on a turnover-fest, which led to three goals by the Panthers. The
league's third worst penalty kill also contributed to the nightmarish game by
surrendering a pair of goals during the collapse.
Sharks head coach
Todd McLellan didn't mask his displeasure with his team after the
game.
“The amount of times that the puck was on our tape and then
on theirs...I don’t want to discredit their game, they played hard and
they were a good fore checking team," said McLellan. "We were very sloppy. That
is probably as poorly as I’ve seen our six D play in four years,
altogether as in turnovers. The forwards did not create much of a fore check.
So it was a full team game. So if we don’t want to work today we will find
some time tomorrow to do it.”
Logan Couture got things off to a
spectacular start 76 seconds into the game, firing a shot past Panthers backup
goaltender Scott Clemmensen. Couture was skating away from the net as he took a
pass from Brent Burns, then pivoted and took a sweeping shot on goal. Panthers
defenseman Dmitry Kulikov tried to get a hand on the puck, but it hit him in
the glove and deflected past Clemmensen.
A poor tripping penalty to
Dan Boyle empowered Florida to tie the game just under 8 minutes into the game.
Stephen Weiss punched home his 9th goal of the season after Douglas Murray
impeded his own netminder, by getting his stick in the way of a Thomas Greiss
glove hand.
The tie was short lived after Jamie McGinn scored his
second goal in as many games, punching home a Michal Handzus feed from behind
the Panthers net.
San Jose got a scare early in the 2nd period when
Martin Havlat was hit from behind by Sean Bergenheim. Havlat had his back to
Bergenheim, who tried to vault over the Sharks forward. Bergenheim's knees hit
Havlat square in the back, sending the Shark's face crashing into the ice.
A pair of gaffs by the Sharks defense would cost them dearly.
Former Shark Marco Sturm re-tied the game at 5:37 of the period after
defenseman Colin White turned the puck over in the San Jose zone. Sturm pounced
on the loose puck and cut across the top of the crease from left to right
before slipping a backhand shot past Greiss.
Brent Burns followed
White's miscue with a turnover of his own less than two minutes later and Tomas
Fleischmann made them pay. Burns coughed up the puck along the right wing
boards, where Kris Versteeg capitalized, scooping up the loose puck and sliding
a pass to Fleischmann in from of the Sharks net. With no defenders in sight,
Fleischmann waited out Greiss and he floated across the top of the crease,
wrapping the puck around the Shark netminder for his 12th goal of the season.
San Jose drew their first power play of the game 16:14 on a slash by
Bergenheim. What happened next was inexcusable. Trying to setup the attack,
Boyle made a half-hearted pass that was intercepted by Jack Skille at the
Sharks blueline. Skille then circled around Boyle and raced on in net before
slipping the puck past Greiss.
Brad Winchester impeded a Sharks comeback by taking an
illegal check to the head penalty on what appeared to be a run of the mill
check on Mark Cullen early in the 3rd period. Winchester contacted Cullen with
a shoulder-on-shoulder check against the glass at center ice, but referee Chris
Rooney deemed it a head shot from his position along the end boards.
San Jose killed the penalty to Winchester but it burned valuable time.
Fleischmann took another Panthers slashing penalty with 6:39 to play giving the
Sharks a crack to exploit. Couture responded quickly, one-timing a Havlat feed
from the left wing boards past Clemenssen.
Jason Demers made the
notion of a comeback an absolute impossibility by taking a bad holding penalty
with 3:10 to play. Kulikov then added to the Sharks penalty kill issues by
pumping a shot that Greiss got a piece of, but couldn't stop. The shot trickled
over the goal line to cap the implosion.
“We played such a good
game in L.A. and we didn’t get points," said former Sharks defenseman
Brian Campbell. " It was really frustrating and coming back and even being
down. I think they were up 1-0 and 2-1 and to keep coming back, it was a big
road effort.”
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| FLA |
1 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
| SJ |
2 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Couture 9 (Burns), 1:16. 2, FLA, Weiss 9 (Fleischmann, Versteeg), 7:53, (pp).
3, SJ, McGinn 4 (Handzus, White), 11:44. |
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| 2nd period - 4, FLA,
Sturm 2 (unassisted), 5:37. 5, FLA, Fleischmann 12 (Versteeg, Weiss), 7:15. 6,
FLA, Skille 2 (unassisted), 18:09, (sh). |
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| 3rd period - 7, SJ,
Couture 10 (Havlat, Demers), 13:39, (pp). 8, FLA, Kulikov 2 (Weiss,
Fleischmann), 18:25, (pp). |
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| 1st period - Boyle, SJ
(tripping), 7:12. |
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| 2nd period - Burns, SJ
(roughing), 10:20; Bergenheim, FLA (slashing), 16:14. |
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| 3rd period - Winchester,
SJ (illegal check to head), 3:07; Fleischmann, FLA (slashing), 13:21; Demers,
SJ (holding), 16:50; Jovanovski, FLA (roughing), 20:00; Winchester, SJ
(roughing), 20:00; Winchester, SJ (10 min misconduct), 20:00. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| FLA - Clemmensen |
26 |
23 |
| SJ - Greiss |
35 |
30 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| FLA |
12 |
15 |
8 |
35 |
| SJ |
8 |
9 |
9 |
26 |
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| Referees: Dwyer,
Rooney. Linesmen: Lazarowich, Nelson. |
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