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Sharks best Kings 2-1 in six-round shootout
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Patrick Marleau accept congratulations from teammates after netting the tying goal .
The first time the Sharks and Kings met, October 6 at Los Angeles, the Kings jumped out to a 4-0 lead, frittered it all away, then scored a pair of late goals to win a high-scoring 6-4 game.
This time, tied after 64 minutes of hockey at one goal apiece, it went to a shootout. A long shootout, at that.
Michal Handzus scored on the Kings' first attempt, after Patrick Marleau just missed off the pipes. Dan Boyle's shot went off Jonathan Quick's skates, and defenseman Jack Johnson had a chance to win the game, but was stoned by Sharks goaltender Evgeny Nabokov.
Dany Heatley then put one over Quick's stick-side shoulder to tie it at one apiece, and Anze Kopitar, the leading scorer in the NHL, was wide left, sending the shootout to a fourth round.
Benn Ferriero got too close to Quick and didn't have room to trigger a hard shot, putting an easy forehand into Quick. Wayne Simmonds was then blocked by Nabokov trying to go 5-hole.
Joe Thornton took the Sharks' fifth shot, and was wide left. Dustin Brown then skated into the crease and tried to backhand a shot, but was wide left.
The sixth round shot was taken by Ryane Clowe, who had not netted a goal all season.
He roofed a shot stick-side to give the Sharks a chance to win, and when Jarret Stoll's shot was swatted away by Nabokov, who came out of the crease to challenge him, the Sharks had two points, and their first shootout win of the season.
"(The coach) doesn't really have much time to give you a pep talk," Clowe said. "Most of the time, as a player, you're sitting on the bench watching every shot to see where the goalie positions himself. For me, I just use my reach, try to reach around the goalie, and I'm glad it worked."
The Kings struck first when Alexander Frolov wrapped around the back of the net on Nabokov's stick side and arced a shot off defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic's stick into an open net behind Nabokov. The goaltender had played Handzus well, and the shot would have gone wide had it not found Vlasic's stick. The goal came at 8:00 of the second period, on the Kings' 16th shot of the night.
The goal appeared to light a fire under what appeared to be a rather listless attack, although in fairness, the Sharks were missing several top-6 players -- including Joe Pavelski (broken foot), Ryan Vesce (lower body), Devin Setoguchi (lower body) and Torrey Mitchell (left knee tendinitis). The Sharks put on an offensive flurry for the next 90 seconds, testing Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, who proved up to the task.
San Jose tied the game at the 14:32 mark of the second period when Patrick Marleau took a pass along the left boards in the neutral zone from Douglas Murray and outskated Kings defenseman Matt Greene with a burst of speed, potting a nifty backhander through Quick's five-hole from the circle. The goal was Marleau's 10th of the season, and served to wake the capacity crowd from its evening-long doze.
While most observers think that Marleau is playing the best hockey of his career because he was stripped of the weight of the captaincy in the off-season, Marleau himself doesn't necessarily see it that way.
"I don't think there's a reason. It might be the case, but I don't know -- it's one of those things. You just want to come out and have a good start to the season and play hard, and things are going well right now."
Marleau's coach, Todd McLellan, talked about his goal in very colorful terms: "For me, Patrick Marleau and Marian Gaborik, when their butts drop, and they get that deep knee bend, you know they are going to be flying. As soon as Patty drops down low, it's like a Corvette when you push the gas pedal. Everything drops, and away they go, and when you see that from Patty, a lot of times the defenseman's in trouble."
The Sharks looked just a step slow for the first half of the game, but definitely picked up the pace in the second period. Outshot 13-5 in the first stanza, they turned that around and had a 14-6 advantage in shots in the middle frame, leaving the teams tied with 19 shots apiece heading to the second intermission.
"They (Los Angeles) are a very good team, very tough team to play against," said Sharks coach Todd McLellan. "We had to find our game quickly, and Nabby gave us a chance to work our way into the game. And then at the end of the night he shut the door. The credit goes to him and the credit goes to our players for reviving themselves after the poor start."
Nabokov stopped 28 of 29 shots during the game, and five of six in the shootout. Quick faced 30 shots and stopped 29, but allowed two of six past him in the shootout. At the night's end, the teams had identical 8-4-1 records to sit atop the Pacific Division with 17 points.
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