DENVER, Colo – Game four started with Sharks defenseman, Dan Boyle, picking up where he left off in game three by scoring his second goal in a row. Fortunately for him and the Sharks it was scored on Craig Anderson and gave San Jose their first regulation lead in this series to date.
Boyle’s goal came on a power play on the opening face off when Paul Stastny was called for a high stick against Joe Thornton while battling for control of the puck.
Credit the Avalanche, they stuck with their game plan and did not let that early goal affect their play. Unlike the domination by the Sharks in game three, the Avalanche showed they could hit, skate, and shoot on par with the Sharks on this night.
First period shots on goal were slightly in favor of San Jose with 9 for the visitor compared to 6 for Colorado. The two penalties called against Colorado accounted for the slight edge.
Early in period two Colorado got a chance with the extra man and John-Michael Liles hard shot from the point was tipped on goal by Stastny and the game was tied 1 to 1.
With the penalties in the second period more even the shots on goal reflected that with San Jose taking 15 shots while Colorado had 14.
Tied at one the third period became a goalie duel as each team relied on their net minders to keep them in the game. Anderson for Colorado stopped all 10 shots he faced while Evgeni Nabokov kept the Sharks net clean as well by stopping 8 shots.
For the third game in a row between the Avalanche and Sharks sixty minutes was not enough time determine a winner. Unlike the previous two overtime sessions this game was not decided in the first few minutes. It took nearly 10 minutes of hard skating and amazing shots followed by equally amazing saves before Joe Pavelski was able to get a nicely screened shot off and beat Anderson for the OT game winner for San Jose.
With this Western Conference Quarter Finals series tied at 2 games each the venue switches to The Shark Tank in San Jose, California for game 5, which will be played Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 8:00 P.M.
Contact the author at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com
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