RSS
Home
Sharks avoid trap, beat Nashville 4-3
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Dan Boyle smiles after netting the game-winner with under a minute left Tuesday in San Jose.
The Nashville Predators came to town, not carrying nearly the buzz of the Sharks' previous two opponents, Stanley Cup finalists Detroit and Pittsburgh. For whatever reason, San Jose seemed sluggish and not crisp on offense, but they found just enough legs to pull out a 4-3 win in the game's final minute.
San Jose played poorly in the first period, giving the puck away five different times and relying on rookie netminder Tomas Greiss to keep them in the game.
"The first period, we had a bunch of turnovers, which we talked about in the intermission. We cleaned it up a little bit, but it was one of those games where we were waiting, waiting, waiting, and those game you often find yourself behind against a team (like Nashville)."
Coach Todd McLellan was even more harsh in his assessment. "I'm not sure it was the game we wanted to see, but what we have to make clear is that we won a game tonight. We found a way to come from behind in the third period. Those are the positives, and we got a pretty good start from our goaltender who hasn't played for a while. After that, I didn't think we played very well individually or collectively."
The Sharks opened the scoring when Patrick Marleau brought the puck around behind the Nashville net and tried a wrap-around shot; Joe Pavelski was there to slam home the rebound at 10:01 of the first period.
The lead held nearly to the end of the frame, when the Predators put on a flurry of pressure deep in the Sharks' zone. Goaltender Tomas Greiss, making just his third start of the season, grabbed a shot off a rebound, in his glove with a very nice save, but after the ensuing faceoff, Michael Santorelli flipped a shot that got over Greiss and dropped behind him in the crease. Kent Huskins, trying to lend defensive help, bumped the puck with his skate while sliding through the crease and watched helplessly as it trickled over the line for the tying score.
Just 2:33 after the first intermission, the Sharks took back the lead when Jamie McGinn potted his third goal of the season by being in the perfect place when Brad Staubitz' hard shot from the slot rebounded out to the left circle. McGinn flipped it over goaltender Dan Ellis for a 2-1 lead.
At 14:49 of the second period, former Shark Marcel Goc, who centered their fourth line last year and scored only a pair of empty-net goals in the process, back-handed a shot from the right circle past Greiss' stick side to tie the game. It was Goc's first goal as a Predator.
Immediately after the following faceoff, Patrick Marleau broke free in the Nashville zone and lifted a shot high over Ellis, which clinked off both the crossbar and then the left post but refused to cross the goal line.
The Sharks thus started the third period tied – and they were 2-0-1 in similar circumstances so far this year. Nashville, a complete .500 team, (7-7-1 overall, 3-3 at home, 4-4-1 on the road) was 2-2-1 in games where they were tied entering the third period.
It was Nashville who scored the tie-breaker, though, when Patric Hornquvist, in the crease, redirected a shot by Dan Hamhuis from the back of the right circle at 9:29. The deflection wound up going top shelf, and after a video review, it stood, giving the visitors a 3-2 lead.
At 13:26, Devin Setoguchi took a soft feed from Dan Boyle just as he entered the zone to Ellis' left and one-timed a slap shot from the top of the circle that whistled past Ellis because it was slightly re-directed by the stick of a Predators defender. Setoguchi returned to the lineup after being out more than two weeks.
"We didn't play the game we wanted to play, obviously," Setoguchi said. "We were really trying to stress getting pucks on net and getting guys going there. It didn't really happen until the last ten minutes, but I got a lucky bounce, it hit the d-man's stick and went in. I caught a lucky bounce."
Just 24 seconds later, Nashville took its first penalty of the game when defenseman Cody Franson was whistled for holding the stick of Scott Nichol. The Predators were able to skate off the penalty, though.
The game got a little chippy in its final minutes, with several skirmishes breaking out, but the officials "let 'em play".
At the one-minute mark, the Sharks got lucky. Dan Boyle skated in on Ellis and slipped a shot from the right circle which Ellis appeared to have stopped, but which squirted between his pads and exited behind him into the net. It was Boyle's fourth goal of the season, with 59.4 seconds remaining to play.
"It disappeared," Boyle said with a sheepish grin, "which is always a good sign. If you can't see it, it's probably behind him. They turned it over at the red line. I took it back, went to the net, got the puck off, not a very good-looking shot by any means, but it squeaked in there."
Ryan Vesce, who had missed seven games with the always-popular "lower body injury", returned to action Tuesday.
In other Sharks' news, forward Torrey Mitchell, who missed the entire season with a broken leg last year and played four games against Anaheim in the second round of the playoffs, was assigned to Worcester on a conditioning assignment to play himself into game-shape. Mitchell may be ready to play by time the Sharks return off the next road trip.
Related Articles:
Comments
