The San Jose Sharks continued to struggle to score in regulation. The shootout was another matter. Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton all scored in the tiebreaker to give the Sharks a 2-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at SAP Center on Saturday night, ending a three-game losing streak. Pavelski opened the shootout with a spectacular deke before beating Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford. After Chicago's Jonathan Toews evened the score by beating Antti Niemi with a backhander, Marleau drove a wrist shot through Crawford's pads. Niemi denied Patrick Sharp and Thornton ended the game with a sensational deke that left him with a wide-open net and Crawford looking on helplessly.
"It always feels good to win, especially
when you lose a few in a row," Pavelski said. "When
we play our game, we know what we want to accomplish in here."
The loss was Chicago's 14th of the season in a
game that went past regulation, including eight shootouts. But the
single point kept the Blackhawks (33-10-14) one point ahead of the
St. Louis Blues in the race for first place in the Central Division,
though the Blues have played three fewer games. The teams combined
for 69 shots in a game that had SAP Center rocking for most of the
night.
"That was a playoff game. You could feel
it," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "The
building felt it and this building can get loud and noisy. The way
overtime has gone with us it's a little disappointing but we've been
doing some good things 5-on-5 during the game."
Though Crawford made 38 saves through 65 minutes,
it wasn't enough to keep Chicago from losing for the fifth time in
six games. The Blackhawks are 1-0-2 on their current road trip and
play three more games away from home before the Olympic break.
"Not making a save in the shootout tonight
doesn't really give you a chance to win," Crawford said.
"It's a tough loss, I think. We played well. They're a good team
in their building. We definitely had a chance again to win tonight, a
couple of chances late to win the game, we've just got to figure it
out in the shootout."
Niemi stopped 29 shots through OT for San Jose,
which has won eight of its past nine shootouts and is 20-3-3 at SAP
Center. The Sharks are second in the Pacific Division, nine points
behind the first-place Anaheim Ducks but 10 in front of the
third-place Los Angeles Kings.
"We were focused and stuck with the game
plan," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "We didn't
have to come in between periods and make a lot of adjustments. We
liked what we were doing for the most part."
With his team in a funk, McLellan said he and his
coaches stressed getting back to basics. "The message this
morning was 'Let's control what we can control.' And a lot of that is
commitment to defending the right way, being in the right position at
the right time, blocking shots, and doing those types of things."
The Sharks (35-16-6) managed one goal during their
three-game slide and couldn't beat Crawford for more than 40 minutes.
But the Blackhawks were unable to beat Niemi, and San Jose finally
opened the scoring 6:10 into the third period when Pavelski scored
his 29th of the season, beating Crawford after a bad breakout pass by
Sharp and a quick feed by San Jose defenseman Scott
Hannan for his 29th of the season. The goal came with Sharks
defenseman Brad
Stuart in the penalty box, and before his time was up, the
Blackhawks got even on Brandon
Saad's power-play goal at 7:13. Saad finished off a pass by Kris
Versteeg for his 18th of the season and third in three games.
Crawford preserved the tie when he made a pad save at the goal line
on a one-timer by Stuart, and the Blackhawks killed a late penalty to
force overtime. San Jose was 0-for-4 with the extra man and is
0-for-16 on the power play in its past six games.
"Corey was a big reason why we were even
in it and to get a point is something we can look at as a positive
for this game," Saad said. "But in the end you
obviously want to get two points."
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