NHL - Sharks Round Up - January 23-26, 2017

Sharks @ Colorado Avalanche 5-2 - Monday, January 23, 2017
Patrick Marleau had the first four-goal game of his NHL career, scoring them on four shots in the third period, to help the San Jose Sharks to a 5-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center. San Jose (30-16-2) won its season-high fifth game in a row to remain one point behind the first-place Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division. Marleau is the 12th player in NHL history to score four goals in a period, and the first since former Pittsburgh Penguins center Mario Lemieux on Jan. 26, 1997 against the Montreal Canadiens.

"It was a good period to have," said Marleau, who had gone seven games without a goal and has 16 this season and 497 in his NHL career. Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic set up Marleau for his first goal, which came on a tip at 2:53 to break a 1-1 tie, and his fourth on a breakaway at 16:23 for a 5-2 lead.

Marleau said he started thinking about a hat trick after he scored his second goal at 5:57 on a wraparound, jamming the puck between the left post and goalie Spencer Martin's skate to give the Sharks a 3-1 lead. Marleau completed his hat trick at 10:35 shortly after serving a hooking penalty, converting Joe Pavelski's pass on a 2-on-1 rush to make it 4-1. Colorado (13-30-2), which lost its sixth consecutive game (0-5-1), was short one forward after center Matt Duchene was scratched because of illness shortly before the opening faceoff. Marleau put a backhand over Martin's glove at 16:23 after the Avalanche cut it to 4-2 at 11:57 on a goal by Andreas Martinsen. The Sharks took a 1-0 lead in the first period when defenseman Brent Burns scored from a sharp angle with one minute remaining for his 20th goal. He had two assists, giving him 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in the past nine games. The Avalanche tied it 1-1 on a power-play goal by Jarome Iginla at 10:02 of the second period. He beat goalie Martin Jones with a one-timer for his sixth goal and 617th of his NHL career.

* Marleau completed his natural hat trick, putting in Pavelski's pass while skating down left wing.

* Martin denied Marleau at 4:30 of the second period after Marleau gathered in a saucer pass from Joe Thornton on a 2-on-1 rush.

* Marleau scored his fourth goal on a breakaway with a backhand over Martin's glove.

* Burns can play defense too; he deflected Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon's goalmouth pass away from Mikhail Grigorenko early in the first period to keep the game scoreless.

* Marleau scored his 96th NHL career game-winning goal, tying Mats Sundin for 10th place on the all-time list. ... Sharks forward Joonas Donskoi was limited to three shifts in the first period and one in the second because of an undisclosed injury.

"Sharks fans, you could hear them out there. The hats came on. It's exciting to see them come on the ice and everyone's happy for him [Marleau]. He's played real hard this year and he's had a lot of good lucks and for him to pick us up and get some big goals for us." Joe Pavelski
"[Sharks forward Logan Couture] said something to me on the bench, 'Let's go get that third one,' That's when you're thinking about it and guys are rooting for you, so it makes it fun." Marleau said.
"Great player. Still a lot of gas left in the tank, a lot of juice left in those legs. Considering our schedule and his age (37), to play a game like that, that's an exceptional feat. It's an exceptional feat when you're 22, never mind 37 in the middle of seven games in 11 nights. He's a great player. It was great to be part of it."



"We felt comfortable after two that we still hadn't played our best yet. Our second period was better than our first and we wanted our third to be better than our second. We felt if we could build on the second period we could take the game over, and that's basically what happened." Peter DeBoer said.

Sharks @ Jets 4-3 - Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Patrick Marleau scored with 4:33 left in the third period to help the San Jose Sharks to their sixth straight win, 4-3 against the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre.
It was Marleau's fifth goal and second game-winner in two games after he scored four in the third period of a 5-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday. He has 498 NHL goals. Winnipeg had an apparent tying goal waved off with 17 seconds left.

Brent Burns, Logan Couture and Melker Karlsson scored for the Sharks (31-16-2), and Dell made 31 saves. Little had two goals and Andrew Copp one for the Jets (22-25-4). Ondrej Pavelec made 22 saves. Jets rookie forward Patrik Laine had an assist in his first game after missing eight with a concussion.

Couture set up Burns for a one-timer on a 5-on-3 power play at 3:59 of the first period to give San Jose a 1-0 lead. Little made it 1-1 at 8:02 after he was sprung on a partial breakaway by Josh Morrissey.

Couture scored 27 seconds into the second period to make it 2-1, tipping a cross-ice pass from Mikkel Boedker. Copp tied the game 2-2 on a shot from the right circle at 18:01. Little's second made it 3-2 after his shot in the slot went off the crossbar and Dell's back before going over the goal line at 4:00 of the third period. Karlsson was awarded a penalty shot after being slashed by Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba during a Winnipeg power play. His shot over Pavelec's glove hand tied it 3-3 at 9:37. Jets defenseman Toby Enstrom fell into the boards in the first period and left the game. He returned for the start of the second period but left shortly after and did not return. Jets coach Paul Maurice did not have an update.

* Carpenter found Marleau with a cross-ice pass for the game-winning goal.

* Sharks defenseman David Schlemko got to the puck on the goal line and pushed it underneath Dell to get a whistle, keeping the game tied 3-3 in the third period.

* Little corralled a long pass at the Sharks blue line, fended off Sharks forward Joel Ward and put a backhand deke behind Dell for his 11th goal of the season.

* Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic had an assist and five blocked shots in 24:38 of ice time.

* The Sharks traded forward Tommy Wingels to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday for forwards Buddy Robinson and Zack Stortini, plus a seventh-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. Both players acquired by San Jose were assigned to San Jose of the American Hockey League. … Jets forward Mathieu Perreault (upper body) will not return until after the All-Star break, coach Paul Maurice said. He was injured in the first period on Monday.

Sharks Bites

"I think we had a lot of adversity. We got in late, the extra time change after the last game, guys were tired, we had a bit of a battle the night before for most of the game."

"I thought it was under me, I couldn't really tell. Either way I got pushed all the way into the net. So I'm thinking that's the right call there." Aaron Dell said.

"Yeah, it's been really great. The main thing is we're getting the wins. It was a great play by [forward Ryan] Carpenter to get me the puck. He put it right on my tape and I had an empty net."

"When you're out there you're just focusing on playing hard, trying to get to certain areas to score, not letting your defensive game slip at all. You know it's there (500 goals) but as soon as that puck drops and you're on the ice you just play." Marleau said.

Jets Quotes

"I didn't have a good view of it but it looked like [Dell] had it for half a second, which usually they let you keep playing, and we stuffed it in the net. That's the way it goes. Sometimes those calls go against you." Bryan Little said
"It was nice to get back on the ice and be able to play instead of watching the game from the stands. It was just nice to get back." 
"It's always hard. It's so much different to just do some bike workout and then come to the game. It's so different, even though you've been skating by yourself a couple times with the team. It's always hard. Just keep up the pace. It's a fast game and [you] just have to be on your game all of the time." Patrik Laine

Edmonton Oilers @ Sharks 4-1 - Thursday, January 26, 2017

Defenseman Andrej Sekera scored two goals, and goaltender Cam Talbot made 32 saves to help the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. Drake Caggiula and Connor McDavid also scored for the Oilers (25-15-8), who are tied for first in the Pacific Division with the Sharks (31-17-2). Each team has 64 points, but San Jose has a game in hand. Edmonton is 7-0-1 in its past eight games and defeated the Sharks one night after Talbot made 26 saves in a 4-0 victory against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.

Logan Couture scored in the first period for the Sharks, and Martin Jones made 17 saves. The loss ended a season-high six-game winning streak for San Jose.
Couture gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 4:05 of the first period when he scored his 17th goal on a 3-on-2 rush, beating Talbot from the slot. The Oilers tied it 1-1 with 5.6 seconds left in the period when Sekera's slap shot from the slot deflected off Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and past Jones. McDavid got his NHL-leading 42nd assist. Sekera gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal with 2:51 left in the second period. Leon Draisaitl had the assist to extend his point streak to six games. Caggiula scored an unassisted goal on a breakaway at 11:31 of the third to put Edmonton ahead 3-1, and McDavid scored into an empty net for his 17th goal to make it to make it 4-1 with 1:52 left. It was the last game for each team prior to the 2017 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend.

* Sekera took a pass from Draisaitl near the blue line above the left circle and sent a slap shot through traffic that beat Jones to the far side for his second goal of the night.

* Talbot stopped Timo Meier's backhand from close range with his left pad at 5:25 of the third period to keep Edmonton ahead 2-1.

* Early in the second period, Sharks center Ryan Carpenter received a pass from Meier and had a good scoring chance from close range. But Oilers forward Anton Slepyshev got back to disrupt Carpenter, whose shot went wide to the left of the net.

* Sharks forward Patrick Marleau had the puck on an odd-man rush in the first period and appeared ready to shoot from close range, but he sent the puck back to Mikkel Boedker in the right circle. Boedker passed to Couture, who was streaking through the middle of the zone, and he beat Talbot with a wrist shot.
* It was Doug Wilson's 1,000th game as Sharks general manager. He is the fourth person in NHL history with 1,000 games as a GM and as a player, joining Bobby Clarke, Bob Gainey and Bob Pulford. ... Tomas Hertl returned to the San Jose lineup after missing 32 games with a sprained right knee and skated at left wing on the top line. He had four hits but no shots on goal in 17:22.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game. We didn't take them lightly. We had a good start. We would have liked to build on it. We didn't." Joe Pavelski said.
"I think we're ready for a break. It's been a tough month. We've put ourselves in position for a final push." Peter DeBoer said.
"Obviously, they're young with a lot of speed and skill. They added some pieces in the offseason, a little more grit on the wings, back end got a little bit better." Patrick Marleau