Only once in 28 previous road swings through the Alberta province of Western Canada had the San Jose Sharks beaten the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers back to back on the road.
They did it for the second time last night with a relatively easy 6-3 win over the Oilers, matching their 2009 accomplishment, and now San Jose is 2-0-0 on this young season -- and headed home finally for the fans to see in person on Thursday night.
This one was kind of a laugher, though, as the Sharks scored all six of their goals in the first period, including three on the power play.
All the goals came in pairs, too:
- Defenseman Dan Boyle and center Logan Couture scored 1:13 apart to make it 2-0 just 4:30 into the game;
- After Edmonton rookie Nail Yakupov scored his first National Hockey League goal to cut the lead in half, left wing Patrick Marleau scored twice in 1:05 to make the score 4-1;
- Finally, Couture and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored just 1:11 apart to make it a five-goal lead with 40 seconds left in the opening frame.
Boyle's goal, Couture's first goal and Marleau's second goal were power-play efforts as San Jose out-shot Edmonton, 17-7, in that 20-minute session.
"We talked about having a good start," Sharks coach Todd McLellan told reporters after the game. "Our start in Calgary was ugly. We were obviously much better here."
The Sharks were basically on cruise control the rest of the way, giving up single goals in both the second and third periods, respectively, while being outshot over the game's final 40 minutes, 22-14.
While it's early in the season, and a win is a win, the last 40 minutes of this game are something for the team to think about going forward.
A "killer instinct" is something this team has lacked in the past two seasons, and training themselves to stay sharp for 60 minutes now will go a long way towards staying sharp for 60 minutes (or more) in the postseason, should the Sharks make it to the playoffs in 2013.
"We started off the season against two teams having their home openers, which can be tough," team captain Joe Thornton admitted in postgame interviews. "It's not easy battling teams with emotions so high for those games but we handled it pretty well in Calgary and had a great first period to take the fans out of it in Edmonton tonight."
The Sharks get their turn for the home opener tomorrow night against the defending Pacific Division champion Phoenix Coyotes. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at the HP Pavilion.
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