SAN JOSE, CA – From a reporter’s point of view the last two games played at the HP Pavilion are nothing to be alarmed about, however when you make the big bucks and have the pressure of the home town crowd filling the turnstiles, victories are important. I’m not saying that losing is a good thing or acceptable for this roster but they are not going to win them all. The Thursday night game will sting more than Saturday’s loss to Calgary. The coach of the St. Louis Blues, Andy Murray, has been around the NHL for a long time and one of his trademarks is that his teams will play for the full duration of the game not taking any shifts off. In Thursdays heart breaking loss, the Sharks played a great hockey game for 58.5 minutes, the Blues played for 60. Now before we lay blame let’s give the Blues credit for hanging around and giving themselves a chance to tie the game and eventually go on to win 3-2 in a shoot out after the 5 minute overtime period solved nothing. What hurts so much if you are a San Jose fan is that it was done while they were shorthanded. They even got a wake-up call giving up a 2 on 1 right before the tying goal was scored. San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabakov made a highlight reel save flying across the net to get a pad on the one timer shot. The goal that evened things up was a much lower percentage shot from close to the blue line but sometimes they find their way in. After losing a lead that they had held since early in the 2nd period the Sharks were just not able to get the momentum back.
In the post game interviews Nabakov was livid calling out his teammates for not sacrificing their body to block the shot that silenced the 17,000 plus at the Shark Tank. Yes the home team fell asleep in the dying minutes of the game and no doubt a lesson learned the hard way but better for that to happen now in the regular season than in spring when the stakes are higher. If you really want to call out one person who is responsible for the loss look no further than Ty Conklin. The St. Louis netminder was on his game stopping 32 of 34 shots on net but more so he stoned the Sharks on a plethora of great chances in the 3rd period when the Sharks were rallying for the insurance goal. The Anchorage Alaska native stole the show when it counted most. Dany Heatley started the scoring for San Jose on his first shift of the game with assists coming from Thornton and Blake. After that Barret Jackman who was matched against the league’s top scoring line did an admirable job of getting under their skin and shutting them down. Jackman was relentless on Heatley and company while walking the thin line but taking no penalties. His contributions in the win will not show up on the score sheet but do deserve mentioning. Saturday’s highly anticipated game against Calgary was another barn burner between 2 of the top teams in the western conference. With their recent playoff history these teams do not like each other one bit. Calgary is a physical group that has 3 of the games top defensemen on the roster in Robin Regehr, Dion Phaneuf, and the prize of all off season acquisitions, Jay Bouwmeester. The Flames coach Brent Sutter did a good job of matching up at least 1 if not 2 of these elite players against the Thornton line. The first shift of the game set the pace as bruising blue liner Douglas Murray sandpapered Flames captain Jarome Iginla against the boards. He took a 2 minute minor penalty for the hit but the message was sent. Ryan Clowe continued his hot streak as of late scoring the first goal of the game in the 2nd period. Clowe not only finished the play by banging in the rebound from a Dan Boyle point shot but did all the dirty work in the trenches along the boards to get the puck to the point. Olli Jokinen evened the score at with a snap shot from the left face-off circle. He showed why he is a highly paid player in the NHL getting a lot of velocity on the puck that beat Nabakov high on the glove side with minimal back swing. Daymond Langkow scored a few minutes into the 3rd from the slot. He snapped home a pass from behind the net on a defensive zone break down by San Jose for what turned out to be the game winner. HP Pavilion was host to a game that had a playoff feel to it. The game was physical from start to finish with great goaltending on both ends of the rink. It was the type of game where you had to be one step ahead. If you didn’t know what you were doing with the puck before you got it you were hit hard. Not much time to think out there.
The turning point came when Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff stopped Scott Nichol on the highlight of the night. After getting a piece of the shot with his glove Kiprusoff kicked the puck out of mid air with his left skate while lying on his stomach to keep the puck’s forward momentum from going in the net. This show stopper save was played back a good 10 times before the night was over and deservingly so. Those who have watched the former Shark play were not too surprised by the Finn’s acrobatics. So far this year the Flames net minder is tied for second with 16 wins, leads the league in shutouts with 3 including 2 back to back and boasts a .927 save percentage. The Flames GM Daryl Sutter acquired the Sharks 1995 5th round draft pick for a second round pick who turned out to be Marc Edouard-Vlasic. Don’t let the low score fool you. This was an exciting hockey game with both starting goalies stealing the show. There were numerous scoring chances on both ends and I can’t recall 2 teams hitting more posts than they did in Saturday’s contest. The Sharks won in that irrelevant category and can learn from Calgary on how to finish games with a 1 goal lead. The Sharks had a tough time getting the play into the offensive zone for a late game push. The Flames deserve a great deal of credit for a road victory in a building that is typically not friendly to the visiting team The Sharks next game is at home against division rivals the LA Kings on Wednesday. On the positive side of things San Jose has a few days to get back on their feet and will get some quality practice time in before the puck drops. Thanks for reading, Contact cam.gore@prohockeynews.com
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