After getting annihilated by the Nashville
Predators to end their 5-game road trip last Tuesday night, the Sharks were
focused on cleaning up lots of issues. They did that for the first 40 minutes
of Thursday night's contest against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Problem is NHL
games are 60 minutes. Tampa Bay snapped out of a 40-minute funk and scored 3
unanswered goals in the 3rd period to send the Sharks to their 6th consecutive
loss in a 4-1 tilt.
Sharks head coach David Quinn turned the morning
skate into a practice, reminding his team that they were embarrassed by the
Predators just 48 hours earlier. Quinn's players seemed to take that reminder
to heart, as they played some of their best hockey of the season through the
first two periods.
Things started auspiciously for the Sharks, but
they still looked as if the sting of their Tennessee debacle was on their
minds.
It's said that you make your own luck but the way the Sharks
season has gone it's not surprising that they would fall victim to a fluke goal
to start this game. With the puck deep in the San Jose zone, Victor Hedman
carried the puck out of the left corner and made an attempt too wind the puck
around the end boards, but his pass kicked off referee Chris Schenker's skate
to a spot out front.
Schenker had his back to the end boards with is
skates 90 degrees to Hedman's pass which landed on Nicholas Paul's stick. With
everyone tracking where the puck should have been, nobody saw Paul collect the
deflection for the easy deposit.
San Jose would respond two and a half
minutes later when William Eklund finished a 2-on-1 break by whipping a pass
past Andrei Vasilevskiy fro the right side. Jacob MacDonald intercepted a pass
in the neutral zone and immediately countered into the Lightning zone. He
carried the puck below the left circle, before wrapping a pass around
defenseman Calvin de Haan back to Eklund who finished the play for his 11th
goal of the season.
The Sharks would out-shoot the Lightning 7-4 in
the opening frame.
Vasilevskiy kept the Lightning in the game early in
the 2nd period with a pair of stellar saves on quality chances. First he stoned
Luke Kunin from the doorstep, then denied Justin Bailey 2 minutes later.
Jan Rutta was called for slashing as the middle
period timer expired. The defenseman was forced into the infraction after
Justin Bailey turned the puck over at center ice, resulting in a great scoring
chance for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay took full advantage of the ensuing
power play which started when the puck was dropped to start the 3rd period.
Brayden Point converted his 39th goal of the season on a put back chance from
the left side after Nikita Kucherov fired a shot on Blackwood from the slot.
Former Sharks Anthony Duclair scored his 20th of the season at 6:50 of
the period when he gathered a Kucherov feed off the rush and raced in on
Blackwood and lifted a shot over the Shark goaltender's left shoulder.
Point added his 40th of the season with 6 minutes to play after Kucherov made a
blind feed from his knees while he was facing the end boards near the right
corner. Point made quick work of Blackwood after collecting the Kucherov
assist. The helper was Kucherov's 4th of the night.
A tripping penalty
to Steven Stamkos with 80 seconds left in regulation went unscathed for the
Lighting.
Game Notes: * Marc-Edouard Vlasic played in
his 1,283rd game, tying Ken Daneyko for 3rd all time, for games played by a
defenseman with one franchise.
* The game marked the Sharks last game
against an opponent from the Eastern Conference this season.
* The
game was short one linesman after Steven Stamkos drilled Tommy Hughes with a
shot between the shoulder blades. The injured linesman did not return.
* The Sharks out-shot the Lightning through the fist two periods, but as went
the game, Tampa Bay went to work in the 3rd, out-shooting San Jose 11-6. 3 of
those found the back of the net to bury the Sharks.
* San Jose held a
slight edge in draws, winning 25 of 48 draws (52%), which was a huge deficiency
on their recent road trip.
