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San Jose Sharks beat Columbus 6-3
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Welcome to San Jose Dany Heatley. The new Shark scored a hat trick in his home debut to go with an assist and Joe Thornton added four assists to lead the Sharks to a 6-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. 
“Dan-ny Heat-ley!” the crowd chanted midway though the third period, after the new Shark registered the hat trick on a penalty shot.
“It was nice, especially in the First home game,” Heatley said of his welcome. “What a great crowd, what great energy in there, it is a fun place to play. Teammates and people have been telling me all month what a great rink it is to play in and they did not disappoint tonight.”
Dan Boyle added a goal and a pair of assists, Devin Setoguchi had a goal and an assist and Evgeni Nabokov made 24 saves to earn the Sharks second victory of the season.
The Sharks out shot Columbus 28-27, but it was not the number that counted, it was who was firing them.
“They were a very dangerous line tonight,” Coach Todd McLellan said. “I thought they got better as the night went on. That’s just a sign of the m starting to click. The goals and assists were nice, but the fact that they played fast and they were in the right area of the rink is what really impressed me the most.”
Thornton could not argue with the fact that the top line is starting to click. “Yeah, I think he is fitting in just fine. People were wondering when we were going to connect, but yeah, I think he is fitting in just fine.”
Thornton is a big fan of his new teammate. “My job is really easy, just give it to Heater (Heatley) and give it to Setter (Setoguchi) and watch it go in the net. We played well. We started a little slow giving up that first goal but we played good tonight.”
The Sharks did seem to be a little slower than the Blue Jackets to start the game. Maybe that is how 
Columbus struck first with super star Rick Nash getting his first goal of the year. With the puck behind the net and about four bodies on the right side, Kristian Huselius tipped the puck through traffic, Nash got a hold of it and used all the traffic to screen Nabokov as he moved to his left and backhanded the puck right around a sprawling Nabokov.
“Our execution was poor,” McLellan said of the early play. “We couldn’t complete two passes in a row. But as the night progressed I thought we took it over. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, I think that’s evident but I am happy with the win.”
In the second period, the Sharks came out on fire quickly tying the game and then taking the lead.
Boyle scored his first goal of the year during 4-on-4 play. Boyle skated the puck across the blue line and when he could not find anyone to pass to he launched a wrist shot that beat Mason on his glove side.
Shortly after that, Heatley scored his first goal as a Shark at the Shark Tank. From behind the net Heatley brought it out front on a wrap around that deflected off of the defender over Mason for the goal.
The game got physical from there. In the span of 30-seconds there were two toe-to-toe fights. Ryan Clowe
was an easy TKO winner over Michael Blunden. Then it was 4th liners going after it when Frazer McLaren mixed it up with Derek Dorsett. Dorsett got the best of it early on when he was able to get McLaren’s swinging arm caught in his jersey. But when McLaren broke free of his own jersey, he landed some big shots to Doresett’s head.
The physical game led to Columbus getting back into it. Jason Chimera fired a slap shot from the left side that beat Nabokov on his glove side. It was a good shot, but with no traffic in front of him, it did not look good for Nabokov.
The Sharks finished the period strong though scoring two quick goals in the final two minutes. First it was Marc-Edouard Vlasic with a slap shot from the left face-off circle through traffic that beat Mason high.
Then with 12 seconds left in the period Heatley got a long pass from Boyle and beat two defenders into the zone. He swiped a wrist shot as he was being brought down at the face off circle that beat Mason in the 5-hole.
In the third period, the Sharks wasted little time in the third period. Just a 1:34 into the period Devin Setoguchi fired a slap shot from the slot that beat Mason again in the 5-hole. It was Setoguchi’s team leading 4th goal of the season. And it was the final goal given up by Mason who was promptly replaced in net by Mathieu Garon.
The Blue Jackets would not give up. On the power play off a faceoff, Nabokov made a good save off a shot by Fedor Tyutin, but the rebound was left in front of the net and Raffi Torres lifted a shot over Nabokov that bounced off of Boyle in the crease and into the net.
Next up was the Heatley penalty shot that would light the lamp for the Sharks. Heatley got behind the defense and Rostislav Klesla hacked his legs out from him earning Heatley the penalty shot. Heatley used a wrist shot to beat Garon for his first hat trick as a Shark. “I like to see what he is going to do,” Heatley said of a goaltender on a penalty shot. “I don’t really like to have a plan. I saw that corner and took it.”
Took it he did. He took the goal, and he took the crowd. “It was a great night. The crowd was great right from the introductions. I felt as a group we played real well tonight, we skated really well, we forechecked really well and I got rewarded for it.”
The Sharks are now 2-2 to open the season. Game five is Saturday night when San Jose plays hosts to the Minnesota Wild.
GAME NOTES:
**Tonight was the debut for five players in Shark uniforms at the Shark Tank: Heatley, Cott Nichol, Jed Ortmeyer and Manny Malhotra.
**It was also a San Jose debut for rookies Benn Ferriero, Frazer McLaren and Jason Demers. The 22-year old Ferriero was one of the big surprises coming out of training camp.
**Brad Staubitz was suspended by the NHL for one game for a penalty on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Kings. The second year winger was assessed a minor penalty for charging Kings player Dave Drewiske midway through the second period. The NHL says that he made “excessive physical contact on an icing play” and that will cost him one game and his game check. For Staubitz, that game check is a little over $2500.
**Jaime McGinn was recalled from Worcester and took Staubitz place in the lineup.
**There were a combined 30 minutes in penalty time assessed during the 2nd period.
**Joe Thornton’s four assists tied a franchise best for most assists in a game.
**Dany Heatley’s four points tied his career high.
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