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Back to basics
Sharks turn the tables on Islanders
Funny thing happened on Saturday night, as the
Sharks focused on getting back to basics. They won. They did it in an
inglorious way, but they won and that's all that matters. Forget pretty wins.
The Sharks need to focus on establishing an offense that can deliver in crunch
time and a defense that will clamp down on opponents. They got both of those on
Saturday night, beating the New York Islanders 3-1 at SAP Center.
The
timely scoring came in the form o f a pair of 3rd period goals that helped San
Jose snap a 1-1 tie. The clamp down defense came after Kyle Okposo staked the
Islanders to a 1-0 lead 8 minutes into the game. Front that point on, the
Islanders never challenged goaltender Antti Niemi.
New York was held
to 20 shots on goal, never eclipsing 8 shots in any one period.
The
one shot they did fail to control was Okposo's 4th tally of the season. The
Islanders right winger took a drop pass from Nick Leddy then evaded two Sharks
defenders before whipping a shot past Niemi from 8 feet out. Brent Burns seemed
perplexed on the play, allowing Okposo to fly past him as Scott Hannan was
locked on to Leddy.
That defensive miscue would be the last of the
night for San Jose.
Tomas Hertl relieved the Sharks of some of the
pressure of that early Islanders lead by tying things up 2 minutes later. Hertl
was relegated to the Sharks 4th line earlier in the day after his offensive
struggles early in the season, but he responded with a tally on the power play
after Ryan Strome was sent off high sticking Mirco Mueller.
Hertl was
lurking in the slot when the puck was cycled behind the net to Tommy Wingels,
who slid a pass out to the front of the net, for the bang-bang play potted
Hertl's 3rd goal of the season.
"Oh yeah, I'm very happy I scored," and
elated Hertl said after the game. "Tommy Wingels had a very nice pass to me, so
it was a really easy goal. Hopefully, I start more (scoring) and just keep
going."
Both teams engaged in a game of chess in the 2nd period,
restricting each other from navigating through the neutral zone. They combined
for 11 shots in the period. Even when New York drew a holding penalty on
Wingels, they could only muster a single shot on Niemi, and that came as the
penalty was expiring.
San Jose didn't exactly light up the middle
frame, but they overcame that in the 3rd period.
Logan Couture busted
out the advanced Geometry to put the Sharks up 2-1 at 11:50 of the 3rd period.
The Sharks moved the puck around the Islanders zone, positioning it at the
right point where Justin Braun fired in a hybrid shot / pass to the right of
Hallak and the Islanders goal. Couture zeroed in on the puck and placed his
stick blade to perfectly redirect it from a crazy angle. Hallak and the
Islanders defense immediately gestured to the on-ice officials that Couture
redirected the puck with his skate blade, because it seemed improbable that the
Sharks forward could position the shot from his spot outside the right post.
A brief replay review confirmed that Couture had in fact used his
stick rather than his skate, so the goal stuck.
"I was trying to tip it
and get it up, but it was lucky it got in," said Couture. "I saw it go off the
back bar right away. It was a big win for us. We haven't played very well at
home, other than our first game. We have a couple days to rest and get ready
for Vancouver."
James Sheppard pushed the Sharks lead to 2-goals by
capping a pretty sequence with his 1st score of the year. San Jose intercepted
an Islanders pass just inside their own blueline and turned up ice. Adam Burish
drew defenseman Tomas Hickey over to the right wing when he caught Sheppard
busting down the slot. Burish had an option to shoot, but elected to wrap a
pass around Hickey to Sheppard who beat Matt Martin to the front of the net.
Sheppard got his stick blade on Burish's pass, lifting it over Halak's right
shoulder.
The Islanders were forced to pull Hallak with 1:30 left in
regulation, the Burish spiced things up by taking a holding penalty to put New
York on a 6-on-4 power play.
San Jose diffused the crisis by
preventing New York from entering the Sharks zone cleanly. Their trap at the
blueline created turnovers that burned crucial time.
The win sets up a
4 day break for the Sharks who don't play until Thursday to close out their
brief homestand against Vancouver.
"They are good at home and their
fans are obviously behind them the whole way," added Islanders defenseman
Johnny Boychuk. "It's a good place to play infront of, this crowd is loud. When
they get the chance to score they capitalize on it and their goalie plays well,
and they are stingy so it is a tough combo. They played well tonight. We did
have our chance to go ahead in this game and we had to take advantage of it,
and we didn't."
Game Notes:
* Joe Pavelski led all
skaters with 7 shots on goal.
* The Sharks blocked 25 shots, which
contributed to New York's limited time around the Sharks net.
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What did you
think of this story? Post your comments on the
Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| NYI |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| SJ |
1 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
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| 1st period - 1, NYI,
Okposo 4 (Leddy, Boychuk), 8:06. 2, SJ, Hertl 3 (Wingels, Nieto), 10:23,
(pp). |
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| 3rd period - 3, SJ,
Couture 6 (Braun, Vlasic), 11:50. 4, SJ, Sheppard 1 (Burish, Desjardins),
15:35. |
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| 1st period - Stome, NYI
(high sticking), 8:49. |
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| 2nd period - Wingels, SJ
(holding), 2:45. |
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| 3rd period - Demers, SJ
(illegal check to head), 1:55; Conacher, NYI (10 min misconduct), 16:10;
Burish, SJ (holding), 18:47. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| NYI - Halak |
31 |
28 |
| SJ - Niemi |
20 |
19 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| NYI |
6 |
6 |
8 |
20 |
| SJ |
17 |
5 |
9 |
31 |
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| Referees: Dwyer,
Kowal. Linesmen: Brisebois, Gibbs. |
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