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Predators feast on
Sharks
Still no answers for struggling
Sharks
There's not much to cheer about in Sharkville these
days. With the NHL trade deadline and playoffs on the horizon, the Sharks have
been less than inspiring the last two weeks. The opportunities are slipping
away as playoff caliber teams begin to jockey for position. Though not much of
an opportunity, the Sharks fell to the Western Conference leading Nashville
Predators on Tuesday night with a depressing 5-1 decision.
With just
about every team in the Pacific Division winning on Monday night, the Sharks
needed a win in Tennessee to keep pace. They got exactly the opposite. San Jose
scored a 1st period goal, then let the Predators run roughshod on them.
Nashville scored 5 unanswered goals, further exposing a defense that
is doing anything but stopping the opposition from putting pucks in the net.
The obvious storyline for this game was Predators goaltender Pekka
Rinne's spectacular performance, stopping 42 of 43 shots. Many of Rinne's stops
were crazy highlight reel variety saves, but the theme continues to be the same
for San Jose. They can't outscore their opponents.
After Matt Irwin
staked the Sharks to a 1-0 lead 5:26 into the game, it was all downhill from
there. The Sharks actually played an up tempo style, working hard and pushing
matters, but when you can't score, all that ended up doing was setting up the
inevitable.
Alex Stalock got a rare start in net, and probably wished
that was pushed back a month or so. The Predators tied the game later in the
period after winning a faceoff in the Sharks zone. Mike Fisher drew the puck
back to Shea Webber, who used that rocket shot to pump the puck past Stalock
from the right point.
Sloppy puck handling cost the Sharks minutes
later. A limp-wristed clearing attempt by Matt Nieto landed on Mike Ribiero's
stick just inside the Sharks blueline. Craig Smith finished things off by
swatting home a deflection off Stalock for the 2-0 Predators lead.
Nashville scored three more goals in the 2nd period to
put the Sharks out of their misery. A Brendon Dillon interference penalty at
the end of the opening period carried over to the 2nd. Smith converted the
power play, jamming home the puck after Stalock allowed a rebound to the right
side of the crease.
Paul Gausted scored his first goal in 47 games
less than a minute later, after Melker Karlsson fell down, allowing the
Predators forward to take a Gabriel Bourque feed and walk in on Stalock
unimpeded.
James Neal completed the pounding with his 20th goal of the
season at 10:31 of the period. Neal skated in on an odd man rush and whipped a
25 foot shot past Stalock. Neal has now scored at least 20 goals in each of his
7 NHL seasons.
Even after giving up the 5 goals, Sharks head coach
Todd McLellan elected to stick with Stalock. A report by ESPN hockey analyst
Pierre LeBrun on Tuesday suggested that the Sharks are shopping Niemi. The
goaltender becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
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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 |
| SJ |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| NSH |
2 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Irwin 5 (Karlsson, Pavelski), 5:26. 2, NSH, Weber 14 (Fisher), 13:42. 3, NSH,
Smith 16 (Ekholm, Ribeiro), 16:02. |
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| 2nd period - 4, NSH,
Smith 17 (Wilson, Jones), 0:53, (pp). 5, NSH, Gaustad 2 (Bourque, Weber), 1:43.
6, NSH, Neal 20 (Ribeiro), 10:31. |
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| 1st period - Cullen, NSH
(interference), 16:33; Dillon, SJ (interference), 19:21. |
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| 2nd period - Fisher, NSH
(holding), 2:14. |
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| 3rd period - Smith, NSH
(hooking), 5:04; Braun, SJ (hooking), 7:54. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Stalock |
37 |
32 |
| NSH - Rinne |
43 |
42 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
17 |
15 |
11 |
43 |
| NSH |
15 |
13 |
9 |
37 |
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| Referees: Hebert,
Kozari. Linesmen: Cormier, Elman. |
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