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Everything's Cloudy in San
Jose Sharks implode in 3rd agsint Flyers
So much for all the warm fuzzies following the win
over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night. The Sharks took another two
steps backward in their attempts to snap out of a week-long funk that's
resulted in 4 losses in their last 5 games with a meltdown against the
Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night. San Jose suffered a 3rd period implosion,
surrendering 4 goals in the 3rd period after start the frame with a 2-1 lead,
falling 5-2 to a team they haven't lost to since December of 2000. To put that
into perspective, Eric Lindros was still playing for the Flyers the last time
the Sharks dropped a game to the orange and black.
* No beating around
the bush here. The Sharks scored 2 goals in the 1st period, then mailed it in.
Do that against any NHL team and bad things happen. For San Jose they managed
to survive the 2nd period without surrendering a goal, but then the wheels fell
off.
* Things got off to an auspicious start for the Sharks who
surrendered a power play goal to Marl Streit 4:23 into the contest after Matt
Nieto was sent off for hooking. Streit blasted a shot from the point that
slipped past a screened Antti Niemi. The Sharks goaltender has been less than
stellar the past month, but has been particularly bad when the opposition gets
any form of a screen in front of him.
* Nieto atoned for this penalty
3 minutes later, redirecting a Tommy Wingels feed from the right side while the
Sharks were skating on their own power play.
* Nieto converted again
at 12:32 when Brent Burns fought off a check in the right corner. With his back
to the goal, Burns sent a blind backhand pass to Nieto who was cutting across
the slot. The Sharks rookie gathered Burns pass then deeked Chris Mason as he
sliced his way across the top of the crease and slipping a shot under Mason's
right pad for his 6th goal of the season.
* If you're here to read
about the Sharks accomplishments, you can stop now, because there are none.
* San Jose was outshot 12-8 in the opening period, then put up a
measly 5 shots in the 2nd period. One of those shots was a Burns attempt that
clanked off the crossbar.
* The Sharks came out of the dressing room
to start the 3rd period with the intention of having the win handed to them.
The Flyers had other plans.
* Philadelphia scored 3 of their 4 goals
in a 2:45 span that turned a 2-1 Sharks lead into a 4-2 deficit. Matt Read
started things off with a goal 1:11 into the period. Read raced around the
right side and snapped a shot that Matt Irwin partially deflected. Irwin's lack
of speed allowed Read to gain the advantage and uncork a shot that Irwin had no
chance of blocking. The deflection was all it took to deceive Niemi who
surrendered his 2nd soft goal of the game.
* Michael Raffl scored what
turned out to be the game winning goal 78 seconds later, sweeping a deflection
past Niemi, after Erik Gustafsson bounced a shot off the Sharks goaltender from
the slot.
* Niemi and Irwin teamed up once more to assist with a Flyer
goal at 3:56 of the period. With the puck fluttering up the bench side boards,
Irwin scooped it up and sent a blind pass into the neutral zone where Claude
Giroux intercepted it and raced up the left side. Giroux uncorked a shot from
40 feet, that Niemi just flat out missed. The Sharks netminder had the glove
up, but the shot eluded him. The gaff would help Niemi elude the ice for the
rest of the game as head coach Todd McLellan replaced him with Alex Stalock.
* Stalock made a couple of decent saves to keep the Sharks within 2
goals, but his teammates seemed disinterested with making any sort of a
comeback run. San Jose even had a pair of two minute power plays that went
wasted.
* The game wouldn't be complete without a black mark on
Stalock's sheet, so Jakub Voracek stained it with a late goal. Martin Havlat
started the comedy of errors by coughing the puck up along the left wing boards
where Giroux and Scott Hartnell exchanged passes before finding an uncovered
Voracek in the slot.
Game Quotes:
Head Coach Todd
McLellan: "Even in the first I didn't think we were as sharp as we needed to
be. You know we broke the cardinal rule-- when you get outworked, and
outnumbered, all over the rink, you are going to lose. It's as simple as that."
McLellan: "I thought they were harder than we were in all facets of
the game. The goaltender, the blueline, 5 on 5, special teams. They were just
the better team."
Joe Thornton: "I didn't think we played well at all
tonight to be honest with you. I thought we were lucky to be up 2-1 going into
the third period. They got a couple of strange ones and took the game over
after that."
Dan Boyle: "It was disappointing. When we are up after
one we still did not think we were playing the way we needed to play. They get
two quick ones [in the third], and obviously we didn't play hard enough to get
it done."
Matt Irwin: "They were pressing hard and forcing us to
make plays and we weren't executing. That's what we have to do, we have to get
pucks up to the forwards and let them get the puck out of the zone. We have to
use our speed to get behind their guys and go to work. That's what we do, and
when we are doing that well, we are a hard team to play against. We just
weren't doing that tonight."
Head Coach Craig Berube: "Good trip. I
thought the guys battled and played well all three games against good teams.
And we got some good results."
Craig Berube: "We've had games like
that. But I thought we did a real good job with the puck tonight. When you play
a team like the Sharks, they have a lot of high-powered guys. I thought our
players did a good job when they got out there with the Thornton and Pavelski
lines. They did a good job with the checking and a good job with the puck."
Claude Giroux: "We played really well. I think today was our best
game. We played 60 minutes and obviously we were down 2-1 for pretty much the
whole game. But we liked the way we played. We had a lot of chances, and when
we had a chance in the third, we went it."
Wayne Simmonds (going 2-1
on their Cali trip): "I think an LA reporter referred to coming to California
as a 'Bermuda Triangle'. But I think we played pretty well and competed all
three games. I think taking 4 points out of 6 is pretty nice. We'll take that
and go back home."
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
PHI |
1 |
0 |
4 |
5 |
SJ |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
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1st period - 1, PHI,
Streit 7 (Giroux, Hartnell), 4:23, (pp). 2, SJ, Nieto 5 (Wingels, Irwin), 7:33,
(pp). 3, SJ, Nieto 6 (Burns, Thornton), 12:32. |
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3rd period - 4, PHI,
Read 15 (Downie, Couturier), 1:11. 5, PHI, Raffl 6 (Gustafsson, Hall), 2:29. 6,
PHI, Giroux 18 (unassisted), 3:56. 7, PHI, Voracek 15 (Giroux, Hartnell),
17:44. |
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1st period - Nieto, SJ
(hooking), 3:44; Grossman, PHI (interference), 6:14; Gustofsson, PHI (hooking),
19:18. |
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2nd period - Meszaros,
PHI (high sticking), 15:44; Desjardins, PHI (hooking), 18:45. |
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3rd period - Simmonds,
PHI (slashing), 4:43; Bench, PHI (too many men), 12:31. |
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Shots |
Saves |
PHI - Mason |
22 |
20 |
SJ - Niemi |
23 |
19 |
SJ - Stalock |
5 |
4 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
PHI |
12 |
7 |
9 |
28 |
SJ |
8 |
5 |
9 |
22 |
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Referees: Hebert,
Sutherland. Linesmen: Cvik, Nansen. |
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