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Meier's hatty leads
Sharks
Heart to heart chat wakes up San
Jose
December has been anything but a festive month in
San Jose, but for a moment the Sharks looked like the team that reached the
Western Conference Finals last spring by trouncing the Philadelphia Flyers 6-1
at SAP Center on Saturday night. The Sharks got better each period and steam
rolled the Flyers, fueled by Timo Meier's first career hat trick. It was a
night of firsts, as two Shark rookies also scored their first career NHL goals.
After Friday night's disaster against the Los Angeles Kings, the
Sharks head coach Bob Boughner had a sit down with his team and by his own
admission, called out several players. Boughner wouldn't elaborate on his
team's heart to heart discussion, but for a moment, it appeared to focus the
Sharks.
Meier in particular has underachieved this season, so it was
relevant for him to be one of the guys that got the Sharks in the win column
for only the second time in December.
Mario Ferraro scored his first
NHL goal 9:15 into the game to stake the Sharks to a 1-0 lead. The rookie
defenseman pinched after a turnover in the neutral zone, then made a beeline
for the slot. Barclay Goodrow skated the puck up the right wing before sliding
a pass between the circles where Ferraro gathered it and slipped it past
goaltender Carter Hart.
San Jose out-shot the Flyers 7-5 in the
period, but more importantly they grabbed a lead. Those have been few and far
between in December, which has resulted in a single victory in the month.
Joel Kellman liked what Ferraro did and decided it was time to score
his own first NHL goal to open the 2nd period. The Sharks centerman slipped
past the Flyers defense after Radim Simek hit him with a long lead pass from
the left wing. Kellman took Simek's feed at the Flyers blueline and raced in on
Hart before putting a backhand chance past the Flyers netminder at 2:39 of the
period.
Ferraro assisted on the Kellman goal, his 6th of the season.
Former Dallas Stars defenseman Matt Niskanen took a holding penalty at
the 6 minute mark, but the Sharks power play continues to struggle. They are a
collective 2-for-46 in over their last 18 games. The lack of offensive
production on the man advantage has been a big reason the Sharks have struggled
to win games.
Meier gave the Sharks an unfamiliar three goal lead at
9:21, when he tipped a Brent Burns shot from the right point for his 12th tally
of the season. Meier was parked at the bottom of the right circle where he
forced Burns shot on a downward trajectory, where it skipped off the ice and
past Hart.
The Sharks closed out the middle period with a pair of
penalties. San Jose had to kill off a Patrick Marleau hooking penalty with 2:10
left in the frame, then a Barclay Goodrow tripping call that had 1:54 carry
over to start the 3rd period.
The iron clad penalty kill let one by when Ivan
Provorov scored his 9th goal of the season 51 seconds into the final period. 24
hours earlier, that goal was the lynch pin for a Los Angeles Kings comeback.
San Jose learned a lesson from that setback and decided to respond to
Provorov's tally instead.
Meier responded in a big way with a pair of
goals. The Sharks forward teamed up with Evander Kane on both goals. Meier made
it a 4-1 game at 1:36, when he converted on a 2-on-1 chance after Kane slid a
pass to the left side from the right wing.
Meier completed the hat
trick at 12:52, when he replicated his first goal with a tap in from the left
side after Kane slid a pass across the slot.
Patrick Marleau made it a
6-1 game with 2:40 to play when he cleaned up on a Marcus Sorensen chance,
chipping a rebound over Hart's left pad for his 7th goal of the season.
Game Notes:
* Melker Karlsson took a shot to the back
of the helmet in the opening period during a Flyers power play. The Sharks
forward was helped off the ice and did not return to the game.
* It
was the 6th time in Sharks history that two San Jose players scored their first
career NHL goals in the same game. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Joe Pavelski last
did it in 2006.
* With his assist on Patrick Marleau's game, Joe
Thornton moved into a tie for 7th place on the all-time assist leader list with
Adam Oates. Thornton and Oates have amassed 1,079 assists each. Thornton sits
in the 14th spot in all-time scoring, 39 points behind Paul Coffey.
*
Timo Meier was an impressive +5 in plus/minus. Evander Kane, Barclay Goodrow
and Brent Burns were all a +4.
* Martin Jones played one of his better
games of the season, stopping 26 of 27 shots. The only goal he allowed came on
a Flyers power play.
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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 |
| PHI |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| SJ |
1 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
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| 1st period - 1. SJ,
Ferraro 1 (Goodrow, Meier), 9:15. |
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| 2nd period - 2, SJ,
Kellman 1 (Simek, Ferraro), 2:39. 3, SJ, Meier 12 (Burns), 9:21. |
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| 3rd period - 4, PHI,
Provorov 9 (Giroux), 0:51, (pp). 5, SJ, Meier 13 (Kane), 1:36. 6, SJ, Meier 14
(Kane, Goodrow), 12:52. 7, SJ, Marleau 7 (Sorensen, Thornton), 17:20. |
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| 1st period - Meier, SJ
(goaltender interference), 11:51. |
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| 2nd period - Niskanen,
PHI (holding), 6:00; Marleau, SJ (hooking), 17:50; Goodrow, SJ (tripping),
19:54. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| PHI - Hart |
29 |
23 |
| SJ - Jones |
27 |
26 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| PHI |
5 |
8 |
14 |
27 |
| SJ |
7 |
11 |
11 |
29 |
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| Referees: Hanson,
Skilliter. Linesmen: Toomey, Gawryletz. |
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