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Offense gets it done in Big
D
Desjardins leads Sharks with a pair of
goals
With the Stadium Series game with the Los Angeles
Kings looming, the Sharks put together enough offense to get back in the win
column in Dallas on Thursday night. San Jose jumped out to a 3-0 lead, then
tacked on a pair of empty net goals late in the game after the Stars pulled to
within a single goal. Andrew Desjardins scored a pair of goals and goaltender
Antti Niemi made 37 saves to help pace the Sharks.
Desjardins staked
the Sharks to their 3-goal lead with tallies less than 3 minutes apart in the
2nd period. After Marc-Edouard Vlasic's 7th goal of the season in the opening
period opened the game's scoring, Desjardins was Johnny on the spot in the
middle frame to help San Jose chase goaltender Kari Lehtonen.
Desjardins tipped a Tomas Hertl shot from the right wing boards 3:38 into the
2nd period after the Sharks used a strong forecheck to keep the puck pressed in
the Stars zone. Desjardins was parked in front of the right post when Hertl's
shot came flying in. The Sharks forward raised his stick, clipping the puck
with the shaft, lifting the puck just over Lehtonen's left shoulder for his 4th
goal of the season.
Hertl provided a nice screen on a Desjardins shot
2:36 later after the Sharks once again kept the puck pinched in the Stars zone.
Desjardins kicked the puck out to Justin Braun on right point, before taking a
return pass and firing a shot from the top of the right circle.
Lehtonen's evening came to an abrupt end, as Jhonas Enroth was inserted between
the pipes by Stars head coach Lindy Ruff.
A Joe Thornton tripping
penalty put the Stars on the power play at 7:25, which allowed Trevor Daley to
get Dallas on the board. Jamie Benn attacked the Sharks net out of the right
corner, jamming a pair of shots on Niemi who denied both attempts. As the puck
trickled off Niemi's pad, Daley was there to jam home a third shot that finally
eluded the Sharks netminder.
Daley's goal provided a spark for the
Stars, but the Sharks withstood an escalated attack later in the period.
The Sharks tried to make do with their 2-goal lead in the 3rd period,
falling back into a prevent mode, rather than taking the fight to the Stars.
That would bite them when Erik Cole scored his 16th goal of the season with
2:16 to play.
Cole lifted a shot from 8 feet out after the Sharks were
guilty of chasing the puck. Benn was once again the setup man, fishing the puck
off the end boards and slipping it to the front of the net, where Cole was
parked. Matt Nieto lost his defensive assignment, allowing the Stars to make
things interesting late.
With Enroth on the bench for an extra
attacker, the Sharks squashed any notion of a comeback.
Patrick Marleau intercepted a puck in his own zone and
hurled a shot from his own bleuline the length of the ice for the empty net
goal that would push the Sharks lead back to two goals.
Ruff elected
to keep Enroth on the bench in an attempt to get back into the game, but Tommy
Wingels duplicated Marleau's goal, albeit with a shot from center ice.
Game Notes
* The Sharks squared off against former defenseman
Jason Demers, who was traded for defenseman Brendan Dillon last November.
Demers was a -2 against his former team.
* Dillon on the other hand
was a +1 with an assist in his first return to Dallas since the trade.
* 11 Sharks players recorded a point in the game.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
| DAL |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, DAL,
Vlasic 7 (Couture, Pavelski), 3:24. |
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| 2nd period - 2, SJ,
Desjardins 4 (Hertl, Tierney), 3:38. 3, SJ, Desjardins 5 (Braun, Hertl), 6:14.
4, DAL, Daley (Benn, Spezza), 8:00, (pp). |
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| 3rd period - 5, DAL,
Cole 16 (Benn, Daley), 17:44. 6, SJ, Marleau 12 (Sheppard), 18:55, (en). 7, SJ,
Wingels 12 (Pavelski, Dillon), 19:06, (en). |
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| 1st period - Burns, SJ
(fighting major), 11:12; Roussel, DEL (fighting major), 11:12; Fiddler, DAL
(roughing), 13:42. |
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| 2nd period - Thornton,
SJ (tripping), 7:25; Garbutt, DAL (elbowing), 13:23. |
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| 3rd period - Hannan, SJ
(hooking), 6:57; Braun, SJ (holding), 9:29. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Niemi |
39 |
37 |
| DAL - Lehtonen |
17 |
14 |
| DAL - Enroth |
9 |
9 |
| DAL - empty net |
2 |
0 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
11 |
13 |
4 |
28 |
| DAL |
10 |
14 |
15 |
39 |
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| Referees: Peel,
L'Ecuyer. Linesmen: Rody, Mach. |
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