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Shoddy officiating and
goaltending doom Sharks
Controversy mars Bruins
overtime win
The Sharks let two points slip through their
fingers on Monday night. Rather, Martin Jones let 6 pucks slip past him, which
cost San Jose a chance at a share of the Western Conference lead. Shoddy
officiating and poor goaltending resulted in a crazy 6-5 loss for San Jose, who
dropped the contest to the Boston Bruins in overtime at SAP Center. The Sharks
overcame a 3-0 deficit to take a 5-4 lead in the 3rd period before a
controversial call allowed the Bruins to get the game to the extra period where
Charlie McAvoy ended it with a goal 3:59 in.
Sometimes you get lucky.
Sometimes you get the incompetence of Brad Watson and Francis Charron, who were
tasked with officiating Monday night's game. The two referees missed a high
touch play that allowed the Bruins to tie the game with 1:49 left in
regulation. Winger Chris Wagner knocked a puck out of the air as he sat in the
Sharks crease behind goaltender Martin Jones, but somehow Watson and Charron
failed to see Wagner's stick extend a foot above the crossbar as he touched the
puck.
What the officiating pair was watching will forever be a
mystery. The two missed a gaggle of calls, and dolled out penalties that didn't
exist. It was officiating amateur hour.
And it cost the Sharks the
game.
McAvoy ended the game after he buried a drop pass from Davi
Krejci after the Bruins carried the puck up ice. Kevin Labanc was late on a
line change to get back and cover the trailing McAvoy.
The game's pace
early on was set at breakneck speed. Both teams were flying out on the ice.
Boston looked as if they had Martin Jones solved at the 7:30 mark, but
defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic saved the day by sweeping a puck off the goal
line.
One of the biggest issues for the Sharks of late has been their
penalty kill. San Jose exposed that even further after San Jose took back to
back high sticking penalties. Evander Kane followed Tomas Hertl to the box 8
seconds after the Sharks had killed Hertl's infraction.
Boston
wouldn't miss on the second chance. Torey Krug blasted a shot from the top of
the left circle at the 13:49 mark, beating Jones over the left shoulder.
Zdeno Chara made it a 2-0 Bruins lead less than three minutes later
when he one-timed a draw win from Sean Kuraly that knuckled on Jones and
floated past his right shoulder. The puck spun end over end, but it looked as
if Jones never picked up the shot as Chara was credited with his 4th goal of
the season.
Vlasic fell asleep on a play two minutes later when Jake
Debrusk carried the puck up the left wing before sliding a pass to Karson
Kuhlman on the off wing, allowing the Bruins rookie to chip home his first
career NHL goal. Vlasic had position on Kuhlman, but the defenseman was late to
tie up the Bruins forward.
San Jose salvaged a goal with 3 seconds
left in the period when Joe Thornton got his stick blade on a puck after Joe
Pavelski tried to slide it toward the Bruins goal mouth. Thornton was locked up
with a Boston defender on the left post as Pavelski tried moving the puck in on
goaltender Tuuka Rask. The big centerman got his stick down behind Rask, and
helped it across the goal line for his 11th tally of the season.
Joe
Pavelski cut into the Bruins lead early in the 2nd period, converting on a
power play after Kevan Miller was sent off for lofting a puck over the glass.
Brent Burns fired a shot on goal from the left point, but Rask made the initial
save. Pavelski chipped at the rebound that floated over Rask. The goal was
Pavelski's 32nd of the season.
Boston pushed their lead back to two goals 4 minutes
later after Logan Couture was sent off for a ticky-tack hooking penalty.
Debrusk used a give and go to slip past Burns and Justin Braun before flipping
a puck past Jones for this 18th goal of the season.
Thornton cut back
into the Bruins lead when he stuffed a rebound into the Boston net after Radim
Simek nicked Marcus Sorensen with a shot from the left point. After glancing
off Sorensen, the puck hit Thornton who was perched on the right post. The puck
dropped to Thornton's feet, which was behind Rask. A simple flick of the wrist
potted Thornton his 12th of the season.
San Jose made things
considerably harder when Thornton was whistled for catching Brad Marchand with
a high stick at the 18:31 mark. San Jose turned the tables on Boston when Tomas
Hertl sprung Logan Couture with a pass up ice on the ensuing penalty kill that
ended with the Sharks centerman jamming a shot on net after undressing Marchand
with a move in the slot. Rask stopped Couture's scoring chance, but the Sharks
were awarded a penalty shot after Marchand was called for hooking.
Couture wouldn't miss on his second chance, burying the penalty shot for his
22nd goal of the season. The goal was also short-handed, but more importantly,
it tied the game at 4-4.
Thornton gave the Sharks the lead with a shot
at the 13:32 mark that appeared to deflect off McAvoy, which changed the
trajectory enough to deceive Rask.
The Sharks appeared to have things
in hand but the Bruins scored on the most controversial play of the game, which
knotted the game at 5-5. Brandon Carlo put a shot on net that floated behind
Jones, then Wagner gathered it with a high touch that allowed him to control it
and then stuff it home. The issue was, that the high touch was missed by the
officials, which should have negated the goal.
Game
Notes:
* Joe Thornton's hat trick spanned 8 years, 114 days since
his last three goal performance. That was the largest gap between hat tricks in
Sharks history. It was also the first time a Sharks recorded a hat trick
against the Bruins.
* Boston scored their 6 goals on just 20 shots. It
was the 6th time in Sharks history that an opponent scored 6 or more goals on
20 shots or fewer.
* Logan Couture's goal was the 4th shorthanded
penalty shot goal in team history.
* The 2-goal performance by Joe
Thornton was his 43rd career multi-goal performance.
* The game marked
Sharks Peter DeBoer's 800th NHL game as an NHL head coach.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| BOS |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
| SJ |
1 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, BOS,
Krug 6 (Krejci, Bergeron), 13:49, (pp). 2, BOS, Chara 4 (Kuraly), 16:26. 3,
BOS, Kuhlman 1 (Debrusk, Krejci), 18:24. 4, SJ, Thornton 11 (Pavelski), 19:57.
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| 2nd period - 5, SJ,
Pavelski 32 (Burns, Couture), 2:24, (pp). 6, BOS, Debrusk 18 (Heinen), 6:30,
(pp). 7, SJ, Thornton 12 (Sorenson, Simek), 16:03. 8, SJ, Couture 22 (penalty
shot), 19:25, (sh). |
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| 3rd period - 9, SJ,
Thornton 13 (Pavelski, Braun), 13:32. 10, BOS, Wagner 8 (Carlo, Acciari),
18:11. |
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| Overtime - 11, BOS,
Mcavoy 4 (Krejci, Debrusk), 3:59. |
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| 1st period - Hertl, SJ
(high sticking), 10:56; Kane, SJ (high sticking), 13:04. |
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| 2nd period - Miller, BOS
(delay of game - puck over glass), 1:40; Couture, SJ (hooking), 4:43; Wagner,
BOS (fighting major), 10:25; Braun, SJ (fighting major), 10:25; Thornton, SJ
(high sticking), 18:31; Marchand, BOS (hooking on breakaway), 19:35. |
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| 3rd period - Bench, BOD
(delay of game), 1:57; Chara, BOS (slashing), 15:42; Pavelski, SJ (slashing),
15:42. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| BOS - Rask |
38 |
33 |
| SJ - Jones |
20 |
14 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| BOS |
8 |
4 |
7 |
1 |
20 |
| SJ |
8 |
14 |
11 |
5 |
38 |
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| Referees: Charron,
Watson. Linesmen: Mills, Murray. |
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