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Sharks knock off Pens at Tank, tie Avs for NHL points lead
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Jamie McGinn and Jed Ortmayer celebrate the first goal in the Sharks' 5-0 shutout of the Penguins.
The Penguins have what the Sharks want – their names on the bottom of the punch bowl.
For one night, the Sharks had everything else. It's not likely that seven games between the two would all be like Saturday's contest, but for that one night, the Sharks laid an old-fashioned shellacking on the Stanley Cup champs, 5 to 0.
Granted, the Penguins were short-handed, with Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar both out with injuries. Nevertheless, the Sharks put on a fine performance coming off a long road trip, and played a second consecutive excellent game against one of the Cup finalists last June.
"All the teams in the league are injured right now," said San Jose coach Todd McLellan. "Programs should probably have two pages, those who are playing and those who are out. We're all beat up right now; what we have to do is not use it as an excuse, and fight through it, and our team has done a pretty good job of that lately."
Bolting to a 4-0 lead in the first 23:31 of the game, the Sharks scored early and often, driving Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to the locker room just 1:41 into the second period, with the score 3-0. Fleury also allowed four in the net in the final 13:43 of Thursday's game against the Kings, meaning he has allowed seven in his last 35:24 in the net.
Jamie McGinn netted his second of the year just 3:27 into the contest on a flurry in front of Fleury, assisted by Scott Nichol and Jed Ortmeyer. Secondary scoring is often key in games against quality teams, and it proved so here, as it set the stage. The Sharks allowed a wrap-around chance early in the game, and then just two more shots on goal in the final 19:30 of the first period. One other attempt was very costly to the Penguins, as defenseman Kris Letang skated in on Evgeny Nabokov's glove side and took a shot from outside the crease, but tripped himself and landed hard on his shoulder, eventually sliding into the boards. A linesman had to help him up, and Letang left the ice, done for the evening.
With Mike Cooke in the box for roughing, Joe Pavelski, a surprise starter who was not listed on the pre-game roster, netted his first of the season at 16:04 of the first, as he redirected a shot from the left circle by Dan Boyle up over Fleury's left shoulder. Manny Malhotra got the second assist – and a trend was established. By the time the lead was extended to 4-0, nine different Sharks were on the scoresheet.
"It puts a smile on everyone's face to see Joe back in the lineup," McLellan said, "he's a very smart player. It's important that our scoring is spread out – our second unit on the power play got some nice time tonight, they were more of our first line tonight, the way the other line struggled (on the power play) tonight."
Fleury's final work came to an end when Boyle potted his third of the season, assisted again by Ortmeyer and Kent Huskins, who tallied his fifth assist.
Brent Johnson took over, and the Pens gained a little life. They out-shot San Jose 12-7 the rest of the way – but Nabokov was up to every challenge, while Dany Heatley was able to jam home a rebound from the left doorstep to stretch the lead to 4-0 with the third shot Johnson faced in his first 1:50 in net. Once the crowd had secured their free pizza (four Sharks goals), San Jose's aggressiveness diminished somewhat, but they still played a physical game, drawing two more Pittsburgh penalties to give the Pens seven in two periods.
"When you're up 4-0 after two (periods), you don't want to let up off the gas pedal," Heatley said. "We talked about that between periods, and I thought we did a good job of maintaining control."
The Sharks don't lose games with a lead after two periods – they were 9-0-1 in that situation. Saturday was no different. With about 12 minutes remaining in the game, the Penguins gave up another defenseman, as Jay McKee blind-sided Jody Shelley, lost the fight, and was awarded a fighting major, a roughing penalty, an instigation penalty, and a 10-minute misconduct. As McKee skated off the ice, he was greeted by Fleury, who was sitting in the stands by the exit to the tunnel, where many visiting teams seat their non-playing goalie.
With the resulting man-advantage, Malhotra scored on the power play at 9:51, assisted by Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Ryane Clowe, giving 11 San Jose players points on the night. The teams combined for 20 penalties in a tough physical game that included three separate fights.
"If we were in that situation, down 5-0, we'd be frustrated too, but there's nothing to do about it but be happy we were on the right side tonight," said McLellan of the 36 minutes of penalty time the Penguins racked up.
The shutout by Nabokov was the 49th of his career, and moved him into third place among active goaltenders. Nabokov faced 26 shots on the night, and had several acrobatic saves.
"We don't need to forget they were missing two of their best performers," Nabokov said, "but I thought our effort was excellent for 60 minutes, pushing the pace, and a step ahead of them the whole time. It was great to see."
McLellan was pleased with the effort, the "process", as he likes to call it, and the results. He was well aware the vagaries of the schedule-maker had put his time against both Cup finalists in consecutive games. "It's never just another two points," McLellan said. "I think the fact we played pretty well against the two top teams last year should make us feel pretty good about ourselves, but we have to move on from it now."
The win gave the Sharks 26 points, tying them with Colorado and Pittsburgh for the most points in the NHL.
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