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San Jose Sharks 3-1 over Colorado Avalanche
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San Jose Shark Dany Heatley celebrates his second period goal.
The San Jose Sharks needed 46 shots on net to beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1. Ryan Clowe, Dany Heatley and Jamie McGinn got three of those shots into the net while Evgeny Nabokov made 24 saves for the win.
Clowe added an assist for his second point and Patrick Marleau had a pair of assists to give him a team leading 19-points
The story of the game though was Colorado goaltender Craig Anderson. He stopped 43 saves on the night and certainly deserved more than the loss he got.
“He gave us a chance to win in a game where, quite frankly, we probably shouldn’t have been in it,” Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said.
Matt Duchene, the 3rd overall pick in this pasts years draft, scored the lone Colorado goal short handed. It was the second goal of the season for the young 18-year old.
For San Jose it was good news to see Ryan Clowe break out of his scoring slump. Clowe had not recorded a goal this season, and his goalless streak reached 22 games going back to last season. But Clowe found the net in the shootout against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night. The hope was maybe that was the start of good things for the forward.
“I am happy for Ryan,” Coach Todd McLellan said. “Nobody realizes ohw hard he’s worked here lately, off the ice, on the ice. We do a lot of extra things to try and find his game.”
The story of the game though was the Colorado goal tender and the Sharks desire to keep peppering him with shots.
“That is how you have to beat Anderson,” McLellan said. “You’re not going to be able to beat him on the first or second. You have to get him out of position and find the open net.
It took the Sharks 32 shots before the finally solved the young goaltender.
The Sharks seemed to push the action for much of the game. The first period ended in a scoreless draw but the Sharks showed their shot advantage early. San Jose outshot Colorado 12-5 in the first period. Each team had two power play opportunities.
The Sharks came out on fire in the second period. Thanks to an early power play opportunity, the Sharks were out shooting Colorado 12-0 in the first five minutes of the second. But Anderson stood tall in net.
Clowe finally broke through with just five seconds left in the period. Rob Blake took a rifle shot from the point, the rebound came out front to Marleau who got a quick shot off that bounced off Anderson to his right where Clowe was skating in for a quick backhanded shot into a wide open net.
The Sharks ended up out shooting Colorado 20-8 in the second period.
The Sharks made it a 2-0 lead early in the third. As the Sharks continued to pepper Anderson on one shift, the defenders became tired. The puck came out to the blue line where Jason Demers fired the puck just left of the net where Dany Heatley could easily redirect for his 9th goal of the season. It was a very quick, almost no look pass from Demers that set up the play.
In the third period, the Avs got on the board on a short handed goal from Duchene. He brought the puck out of the defensive zone 1-on-1 against Dan Boyle. As he entered the zone he took a shot through Boyle’s legs. Nabokov made the save but the rebound came right back to Duchene’s stick and while Boyle was looking for the puck, Duchene quickly shot it past Nabokov on his glove side for the goal.
The Sharks responded just 30-seconds later. As time ran out on the power play, McGinn got behind the defense on a line change. Marleau found him and as he skated uncontested to the net he fired a shot that beat Anderson up high on the stick side. Sharks were back up 3-1.
The brief homestand is over with the Sharks collecting all four available points. The Sharks hit the road for another three games beginning Sunday in Carolina. The faceoff for that game is 9:30am pacific time.
GAME NOTES:
Dan Boyle (1goal-6assists-7points) and Patrick Marleau (5-6-11) each entered the game with six game point streaks. Boyle also had a three game assist streak registering four assists in that stretch.
Boyle’s streak came to an end. Marleau now has a seven game point streak (5-8-13)
Joe Pavelski and Ryan Vesce were scratches again with lower body injuries.
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