Friday 14 April 2017

NHL - Sharks - Western Canadian Round Up March-April 2017


Sharks @ Edmonton Oilers 2-3 - Thursday, March 30, 2017

The Edmonton Oilers moved into second place in the Pacific Division with a 3-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place. Connor McDavid had a goal and assist, and Patrick Maroon scored two goals for the Oilers (43-25-9), who lead the Sharks by two points for second and trail the Anaheim Ducks by one point for first in the division. Cam Talbot made 38 saves for his 39th win of the season (39-21-8), one shy of the Edmonton record set by Grant Fuhr in 1987-88. The Oilers, who have won seven straight games at home, host the Ducks on Saturday. Jannik Hansen and Joe Pavelski scored, and Martin Jones made 19 saves for the Sharks (43-27-7), who have lost seven of their past eight games (1-7-0). Hansen scored 1:01 into the game to give San Jose a 1-0 lead. He collected the rebound of a Paul Martin shot in front of the net and lifted a backhand shot over Talbot. Maroon tied it 1-1 at 10:22 on a cross-crease pass from McDavid. With the assist, McDavid extended his point streak to an NHL career-high nine games. McDavid scored the first shorthanded goal of his NHL career with 2:32 left in the first period to put Edmonton ahead 2-1. McDavid leads the NHL with 91 points (28 goals, 63 assists), seven more than Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks. Maroon scored his second of the night, 27th of the season, at 7:51 of the third period to give the Oilers a 3-1 lead, tipping a point shot from defenseman Kris Russell past Jones. Pavelski got his stick on Marc-Edouard Vlasic's shot from the point to redirect it past Talbot to make it 3-2 at 13:59. The Sharks pressed for the tying goal but were unable to beat Talbot, who is third in wins this season, behind Sergei Bobrovsky of the Columbus Blue Jackets (41) and Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals (40).
* McDavid took a cross-ice pass from Leon Draisaitl, skated past Sharks defenseman Justin Braun, and set up Maroon in front for a tap-in.
* Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse had three shots on goal, one hit and one blocked shot in 15:37 of ice time.
* With the Oilers shorthanded, McDavid took a pass from defenseman Oscar Klefbom at center ice, skated past Patrick Marleau at the Sharks blue line, and lifted a backhand shot over Jones on a breakaway.
* McLellan coached his 699th NHL game. … With the secondary assist on Maroon's goal, Draisaitl has four goals and 12 assists during a nine-game point streak. … Hansen had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. He had an assist on Pavelski's goal and fought Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson in the second period.
"I thought we had a lot of jump, created a lot of chances, we get a goal. Obviously, you don't have to give him a lot of space for [Connor] McDavid to create something. He did that today, and I think he turned the game around a little bit." Jannik Hansen said.
"We got the start we wanted, we played a great 12 minutes, then they made a little push. It was a tough one to give up, I think, on the shorthanded one. That's on us as players. Both goals were maybe on line changes, just a couple of little breakdowns cost us tonight." Joe Pavelski said.
"We made a few mistakes and they're opportunistic, especially, obviously, McDavid. A couple of poor line changes in the first, and if he gets any kind of room at all, or you make a mistake when he's on the ice, [it's] got a good chance of ending up in the back of the net, and it did." Peter DeBoer said.


Sharks @ Calgary Flames 2-5 - Friday, March 31, 2017

The Calgary Flames clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 5-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary (44-30-4) moved one point behind the Sharks for third place in the Pacific Division and leads the Nashville Predators by three points for the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference. The Predators have one game in hand.
Chiasson, Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Matt Stajan and Sam Bennett scored, and Brian Elliott made 36 saves for Calgary, who did not make the playoffs last season and started this season 5-10-1. Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Melker Karlsson scored, and Martin Jones made 18 saves for the Sharks (43-28-7), who have lost eight of the past nine games (1-8-0) and are two points behind the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific having played one more game. The Sharks led the Flames by nine points on March 14. Gaudreau extended his point streak to seven games (three goals, eight assists) when he put the Flames up 1-0 at 12:26 of the first period, and Monahan extended his point streak to four games (three goals, five assists) when he gave Calgary a 2-0 lead 3:39 into the second. Vlasic scored at 8:25 to make it 2-1. The Flames took a 3-1 lead at 12:38 with Stajan's first goal since Feb. 3 (sixth this season), and Chiasson put Calgary up 4-1 at 17:09. Aaron Dell started the third period in relief of Jones, and Karlsson scored to make it 4-2 at 13:06. Dell made 12 saves. Bennett scored into an empty net with 34 seconds remaining after the Flames killed his minor penalty for tripping.

* After the Flames failed to clear their zone, Karlsson drove to the net and redirected Joe Pavelski's centering pass.
"They get the second one and they got a 2-on-1 right away and he made a huge save," Flames captain Mark Giordano said. "I think that's the game right there, the turning point."

"You've just got to work through it. We're working now and it's not working. You've got to just push through. We know we're a great team. We've got to get back there. Who knows? We've got to see a witch doctor or something, I think. We'll see."
"Everything's fixable. We're a great team and we know it. We played like it for 68, 69 games, and in some of these games we're playing well too. I think it was there. It's just a matter of, I don't like saying bearing down or all that stuff, because guys are working. A lot of times it's a split-second read. It just seems like those split-second reads and bounces are going the other way. It's a matter of working through those bounces, working through the reads." Brent Burns said.

Sharks @ Vancouver Canucks 3-1 - Sunday, April 02, 2017

The San Jose Sharks kept pace in the Pacific Division race with a 3-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. Tomas Hertl scored two goals, and Martin Jones made 29 saves for San Jose (44-28-7), which won for the second time in its past 10 games. The Sharks trail the Anaheim Ducks by four points for first place in the division after the Ducks defeated the Calgary Flames 4-3. San Jose, which trails the Edmonton Oilers by two points for second place and leads fourth-place Calgary by three points, has three games remaining. The Oilers have a game in hand on the Sharks, Oilers and Flames. Already missing center Logan Couture for a fourth game with facial injuries, Sharks center Joe Thornton left the game with an apparent left-knee injury with 3:05 left in the first period. Thornton wasn't putting weight on his left leg after his knee awkwardly hit the back of Michael Chaput's right leg when he checked him from behind along the boards in the Vancouver zone. DeBoer didn't have an update on Thornton after the game. Sven Baertschi scored with 3:53 left in the third period to make it 2-1, and Ryan Miller made 22 saves for the Canucks (30-39-9), who have lost four straight and are 2-9-2 in the past 13 games. Hertl ended a 16-game goal drought when he scored off a scramble from close range at 11:00 of the first period for a 1-0 San Jose lead. He scored his second goal of the game from the left faceoff dot 1:51 later to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead. Patrick Marleau scored into an empty net to make it 3-1 with 2.6 seconds remaining.
* Hertl started the play on his first goal by stealing the puck from Drew Shore and setting up Jannik Hansen alone at the top of the crease. Hansen tried to pass back to Hertl, but the puck went to Mikkel Boedker, and the rebound off Boedker's backhand left Hertl with an empty net.
* Canucks forward Jayson Megna cut left to right through the slot with speed on a 1-on-1 rush against defenseman Paul Martin, but Jones stayed with him and got his left arm on his high shot.
* Alexander Edler's slap shot trickled behind Jones with 5:12 left in the first period, but defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic beat Bo Horvat to the loose puck.
* Playing his first game in Vancouver since being traded to San Jose on Feb. 28, Hansen stranded Miller with a fake slap shot on a breakaway 6:42 into the game but was hooked off the puck by defenseman Nikita Tryamkin before he could shoot. Miller and Hansen, who received an ovation after a video tribute before the ensuing faceoff, shared some laughs during a brief chat afterward. "Love scoring on him in practice and would have liked to have done it here too," said Hansen, who had an assist on Hertl's first goal. "He's very competitive, hates to get scored on, especially by me, but it's a friendship you make when you play with guys for so long."
* Thornton, 37, is fourth on the Sharks with 50 points (seven goals, 43 assists) this season. His 1,391 NHL points are tied with Brett Hull for 22nd on the League's all-time list. … San Jose ended a six-game road losing streak with its 11th straight win in Vancouver. … Megna, who has four goals and four assists in 54 games this season, signed a one-year, $675,000 contract Sunday.
Sharks Bites
"It's a great challenge for us. Hopefully he's [Joe Thornton] only out short term here, but I think we're confident as a group. We're a team that's a sum of our parts, not about one or two guys. If anyone can handle it, we can."
"We have to win all three and hope for a little bit of help. It was a gutsy effort. Take two guys like that out of your lineup, I thought the rest of the guys responded and got a much-needed two points for us." Pete DeBoer said.

"We want to use the next three games [at home against the Canucks, Oilers and Flames] to build for playoffs." Jones said.
"I need to show my best game with these guys missing. I expect some goals. Sometimes you're trying so hard and everything's going wrong." said Hertl.

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