In Anaheim Friday, John Gibson made 23 saves as he picked up his second shutout of the week in a 1-0 win over the San Jose Sharks.
“[Gibson] played great, but at the same time, we did the fundamental things really well,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Unfortunately for us, we could’ve score more goals, but we’re sort of snake-bit this year in goal-scoring.”
John Gibson gets 2nd shutout of the week – file photo by Brent Clark
Mike Santorelli scored the only goal of the game just under three minutes into the third period.
Nate Thompson and Chris Stewart assisted on the game-winner.
“The three of us got in on the forecheck and took a couple shots,” Santorelli said. “[Stewart] and [Thompson] were down low and it was a good play. [Thompson] made a good pass to me and it went in.”
Martin Jones took the loss for the Sharks despite a strong game in making 25 saves on the night.
“Both goalies were great, special teams were even. It just came down to who’s probably going to get that first goal is probably going to win,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “We had our opportunities early in the game, I thought they were a little better in the third, but it was a tightly played game.”
It was another tough loss for San Jose who continue to have difficulty finding consistency.
“It would have been nice to get one on the power play,” Sharks center Joe Thornton said. “Really, it was a good road game. We’d like to obviously get some points out of this. We played, I thought, well enough to win, but unfortunately, we just didn’t get any points out of it.”
The Ducks’ defense has found its stride of late and both Gibson shutouts have been 1-0 affairs.
“He was huge for us tonight,” Thompson said. “I had the pleasure of playing with him [for the United States] in the World Championships and you could see it then. It was like he didn’t have a heartbeat, but in a good way. You can see it in the way he plays.”
The Pittsburgh Penguins are in Anaheim Sunday.
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