Friday night ahead of the game against the New York Islanders, San Jose Sharks have eleven wins from twenty games, and are heading out to the ice full of confidence following a pair of wins earlier in the week.
Sharks shut out the Devils Monday night after scoring four for themselves, and then beat the Blackhawks 2-1 on Wednesday. Islanders however, sitting twenty ninth in the league (6-9-4) will be wanting to recover from their 4-2 loss on Wednesday night.
In the game on Friday, Sharks gave up an early power play, Brenden Dillon sitting a penalty when his slash broke Cal Clutterbuck‘s stick. This resulted in the Islanders taking the puck to the Sharks zone, and sending it round the defending Sharks until Josh Bailey’s shot from the blue line getting tipped in by Anders Lee.
Sharks penalty kill has been great this season (88.2% prior to this game), with the experience of Brent Burns anchoring things at the back. Sharks announced earlier this week that Burns has signed an eight year contract, keeping him in teal for quite some time in to the future.
Following this goal, the Sharks tried attacking back, Tommy Wingles getting close to slipping the puck past Thomas Greiss, and then the Sharks second line following it up with a sustained attack on the Islanders goal.
With seven minutes to go, Joe Thornton found himself with just the net minder to beat, and was given a penalty shot after he was hooked from behind, but much to the dismay of the fans Thornton’s shot went wide of the post.
Despite looking dangerous, the Sharks also looked like there was something off during the first period. Losing the puck in open ice, Mikkel Boedker losing his footing and taking the Islanders goal out. Islanders, on the other hand, being dutifully led by John Tavares seemed to have their heads properly in the game, and were working well as a team. The Sharks however, had dominated possession and outshot the Islanders, but the end of the first period the score was still 1-0 to the Islanders.
Coming back in the second, the Sharks had cleared their heads and the puck spent the first two and a half minutes deep in the Islanders zone, Greiss keeping the net clear though.
Tommy Wingles was missing from the Sharks bench, with an announcement later in the game that he was being assessed, with more information to expected later.
It was only a matter of time before Greiss yielded under the pressure, and when he did the score suddenly changed in a way the Islanders couldn’t have imagined.
After the puck had been iced by Joe Pavelski, Matt Nieto took the puck down the ice with a pass forward to Chris Tierney on the blue line, a quick cross in front of the goal and Pavelski put the puck over Greiss’ shoulder.
Second later, the puck was deep in the Sharks zone, scooped out to Burns who fired a cannon from the centre line which appeared to take a slight nudge on its way, but found the back of the net.
So far this season, the Islanders have started the third period as the losing team six times, and all six times they have lost the game. This was obviously present in the Sharks mind when they came back after the break, and it was something that the Islanders were wanting to change. Aaron Dell had to stop John Tavares within the first ninety seconds, pushing the puck off the end of Tavares’ stick.
With one minute twenty left in the game, Greiss headed for the bench to get the Islanders an extra man on the ice, twenty two seconds later Nick Leddy tied the game, putting the puck over Dell’s stick.
Thinking that they were heading to overtime, Greiss got back in goal, and the teams settled in to play the last fifty eight seconds. Sharks pushed up, the puck came to Burns at the blue line. Burns sent a hard pass to Patrick Marleau in the slot, his one timer through trafic put the Sharks back in the lead with just twenty three seconds left on the clock.
Even with Greiss being on the bench for the rest of the game, there wasn’t enough time left to pull it back for the Islanders, and the Sharks were left celebrating on the ice when the final buzzer sounded.
Sharks have a rare back to back at home, as Saturday night they are visited by the Anaheim Ducks. Ducks are 9-8-0 on the season so far, and between the Sharks and Ducks it is 2-1 in favour of the Ducks.
Islanders get the weekend off, their next game they play host to the Calgary Flames on Monday night.
