DENVER, Colo – Not the fans, not the players, not the coaching staff, no one watching this game could spin it any other way. This third game of the Western Conference Quarter Finals between San Jose and Colorado was total domination by the Sharks from the middle of the first period until the 19:09 mark of the first overtime session.
Period one started with a lot of bad blood and the physical play that resulted in the loss of Kevin Porter for the Avalanche and Dany Heatley for the Sharks in game two, continued unabated from the previous two games.
However, the biggest loss for the Avalanche in the period occurred when Milan Hedjuk collided with Paul Stastny and was lost for the rest of the contest.
At 1:43 the officials, hoping to gain control of the extracurricular stuff called the first minor penalty of the game on Jason Demers for unsportsmanlike conduct. No sooner had that penalty expired when another was called, this time on the Avalanche, Darcy Tucker got 2 minutes for elbowing.
As soon as that penalty was killed off another Sharks penalty was whistled as Demers was called for a stick hold.
Both Craig Anderson and Evgeni Nabokov kept their opposition off the scoreboard while Colorado outshot the Sharks 9 to 8 in the opening period.
San Jose cranked up the puck possession and maintained their physical game throughout the next forty minutes as the completely dominated the play – out shooting Colorado 21 to 3 in the second period and 21 to 4 in the third.
Despite the Sharks hard work and effort the score after three periods was still 0 to 0 heading to another sudden death overtime.
Fifty one seconds into the first overtime period a relatively innocent looking clearing attempt from the Sharks, Dan Boyle, clipped the stick of Avalanche rookie, Ryan O’Reilly and deflected past Nabokov for the game winner.
As deflating a loss as this was for the Sharks it was an equally joyous win for the Avalanche.
The Sharks domination of the Avalanche had it’s counter in Craig Anderson as his refusal to give up a goal on the 51 shots he faced kept the Avalanche in the game and gave them the chance to win in overtime. For his effort the crowd gave a prolonged standing ovations and cheered wildly as Anderson tried to say a few words of thanks.
It was a fluky goal but all in all a very satisfying win for the Colorado Avalanche as they take a 2 to 1 lead in the best of seven series.
Game 4 will be played at The Pepsi Center in Denver Co. on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 8:00 P.M.
Contact the author at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com
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