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San Jose's Great 8 tops
Caps Pavelski, Thornton & Marleau combine for 9
points
Shaking off the atrocity that was their performance
in St Louis 24 hours earlier, the Sharks bounced back with a throttling of the
Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center on Monday night. Joe Pavelski and
Patrick Marleau each scored a pair of goals to pace the Sharks to their 16th
win over the Capitals in their last 17 meetings. Thomas Greiss made 39 saves to
earn his 8th win of the season.
The Jekyll & Hyde Sharks turned
into scoring monsters, taking a page out of the Blues book by going 3-for-6 on
the power play to stun the Capitals. Both teams were licking their wounds after
losses on Sunday night, but the Sharks had the burden of travelling from St
Louis late Sunday night, while the Capitals only had a short flight from New
York City.
Both teams decided to play backups in net. San Jose went
with Greiss, who was making only his 12th start of the season. Washington
countered with farmhand Braden Holtby, who made his first appearance of the
season after being recalled from Hershey earlier in the day.
The
Capitals young netminder had a nightmarish start, allowing the Sharks to score
on a deflection from outside the blueline. Defenseman Dan Boyle lined up a
blast from the Sharks side of the center line, before Pavelski got a stick
blade on the puck outside the Capitals zone. The redirected puck one-hopped
then ate-up Holtby. The puck hit Holtby on the glove before flipping over his
left shoulder and into the goal.
Pavelski made it 2-0 at 3:26 of the
2nd period on a point blank shot after Logan Couture tried jamming a shot by
Holtby from the left post. Capitals defenseman Karl Azner appeared to deflect
Couture's shot across the to of the crease right to Pavelski, who was parked on
the doorstep.
Jeff Halpern setup another Sharks power play goal 12
minutes later with a high sticking infraction. Pavelski mimicked Boyle by
firing a shot on goal from the blueline, allowing Logan Couture the deflect the
shot in front of Holtby. Marleau made sure the puck would find the back of the
net, by swatting the waist-high puck home as it fluttered over Holtby's back.
The Sharks were cruising, but got a gentle reminder of why they need
to work until the horn sounds late in the period. Dmitry Orlov fired a puck on
net from the high slot, squeezing a shot between Greiss' arm and his torso with
0.3 seconds left before the 2nd intermission.
Any thoughts of a
comeback were quickly extinguished by the Sharks in the 3rd period. Brent Burns
sent a bullet from the right point that slipped past Holtby stick side. John
McCarthy created enough of a distraction in front of the net to allow the
seeing eye puck to find twine.
Marleau potted his 2nd power play goal
of the evening 7 minutes into the period by sliding a puck underneath Holtby's
left pad after Joe Thornton slid a pass through the crease from the left side.
Roman Hamrlik sent a backhand shot from the top of the right circle
that eluded Greiss en route to the Sharks goal. The Capitals defenseman picked
up a Marcus Johansson drop pass at the blueline before sliding into the Sharks
zone and flipping the puck through traffic.
Jeff Shultz scored a goal identical to Burns tally,
firing a shot in form the left point and using a screen by Alex Ovechkin for
his first goal of the season.
Washington was forced to pull Holtby
with 2:12 to play in regulation, but a suspect boarding penalty by Troy Brouwer
evened things up on the ice and essentially ending the Capitals evening.
Game Notes:
The Sharks took both games from Washington
this season, combining for 10 goals in the two games. San Jose beat the
Capitals 5-2 on January 7th in San Jose. The Sharks moved into 4th spot in
power play efficiency (21.0%).Joe Thornton won 69% of his draws (9 of 13). In
one of those scoring oddities, San Jose was a combined -5 +/- even though they
outscored the Capitals 5-3.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
SJ |
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
WAS |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
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1st period - 1, SJ,
Pavelski 21 (Boyle, Vlasic), 12:12. |
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2nd period - 2, SJ,
Pavelski 22 (Couture, Thornton), 3:26, (pp). 3, SJ, Marleau 21 (Couture,
Pavelski), 16:11, (pp). 4, WAS, Orlov 2 (Chimera, Hamrlik), 19:59. |
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3rd period - 5, SJ,
Burns 8 (Thornton, Pavelski), 4:36. 6, SJ, Marleau 22 (Thornton, Clowe), 7:03,
(pp). 7, WAS, Hamrlik 2 (Johansson, Brouwer), 10:22. 8, WAS, Schultz 1
(Perreault), 14:09. |
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1st period - Ward, WAS
(goaltender interference), 2:57; Semin, WAS (interference), 10:03; Boyle, SJ
(interference), 15:01. |
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2nd period - Burns, SJ
(hooking), 0:51; Laich, WAS (cross checking), 2:42; Rechlicz, WAS (10 min
misconduct), 3:44; Pavelski, SJ (interference), 5:26; Braun, SJ (high
sticking), 10:03; Halpern, WAS (high sticking), 14:45. |
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3rd period - Beagle, WAS
(tripping), 5:47; Brouwer, WAS (boarding), 18:48. |
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Shots |
Saves |
SJ - Greiss |
42 |
39 |
WAS - Holtby |
35 |
30 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
SJ |
11 |
12 |
12 |
35 |
WAS |
12 |
18 |
12 |
42 |
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Referees: Auger,
McCauley. Linesmen: Murphy, Murray . |
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