The San Jose Sharks made coach Todd McLellan look like a master
strategist Tuesday night. San Jose orchestrated a come-from-behind
6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center. And
while the final score was the same as their embarrassing loss the
previous night to the Chicago Blackhawks, the games could not have
been more different other than the fact Antti Niemi was the
starting goalie in both.
DALLAS
The San Jose Sharks made coach Todd McLellan look like a master strategist Tuesday night.
San Jose orchestrated a come-from-behind 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center. And while the final score was the same as their embarrassing loss the previous night to the Chicago Blackhawks, the games could not have been more different other than the fact Antti Niemi was the starting goalie in both.
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Initially, backup Antero Niittymaki was penciled in to face Dallas. Yet McLellan opted to go with Niemi, who was yanked less than halfway through the loss to his former team. And the gamble paid off.
“It was important to us to show him that we believe in him after pulling him in his old arena in front of those fans,” McLellan said. “We also thought it would be a pretty good motivating factor to use him. We didn’t think his mates would hang him out to dry again like they did yesterday, and it worked.”
Barely. Dallas jumped out to a 2-0 lead and this game was much tighter than the final score indicated as the Sharks benefited from a pair of late short-handed, empty-net goals by Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley.
Those were the second goals of the night for both Thornton and Heatley, with Ryane Clowe and Torrey Mitchell also scoring. Joe Pavelski picked up a career-high four assists. Niemi made 34 saves to earn the victory, giving up second-period goals to Mike Ribeiro and Toby Peterson and one in the third to Jamie Benn.
Had the Stars won, they would have pulled within two points of the Sharks at the top of the Pacific Division. Instead, the lead is now six points, though Dallas has played one fewer game.
“We know how precious points are right now,” Thornton said. “We’ve said this: ‘The last 25 or 30 games — you can’t lose two in a row.’ That was the case tonight, especially in a divisional game.”
The game was tied 2-2 entering the third period when Pavelski seemed to take charge.
First he stole the puck from Dallas defenseman Jeff Woywitka behind the Dallas goal line and found Clowe streaking into the slot. That 3-2 lead at 1:51 grew to a 4-2 lead exactly 100 seconds later when Pavelski similarly put the puck on Mitchell’s stick for a 15-foot redirect.
Between the second and third periods, Pavelski said, players assessed their place in the standings.
“The last three games, we’ve given up four points,” Pavelski said. “We talked a little bit that we were only three games from being out of the playoffs. Every game we win, we take a step closer and put ourselves in better position. But we also talked that it’s close to playoff-type hockey, so sacrifice is a big part.”
Neither team scored in the first period and Niemi came through with some big saves early, but both teams broke through in the second period.
Dallas went ahead 1-0 when Ribeiro took the puck away from Justin Braun, then beat Niemi at 3:28. Petersen’s short-handed goal at 5:08 after Niemi and Dan Boyle became entangled doubled the deficit.
But Thornton deflected a shot by Boyle past Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen just 75 seconds later and Heatley pounced on the second rebound of a shot taken by Pavelski for a power-play goal to tie the game at 12:40.
In the third period, Dallas cut the lead to 4-3 on Benn’s power-play goal, then got two more chances with the man advantage late in the game.
The Stars couldn’t get the puck past Niemi, and when Dallas coach Marc Crawford pulled Lehtonen with 1:27 left, the Sharks were able to fire the puck the length of the ice without worrying about icing and both Thornton and Heatley found their target.
—The game took on a nasty edge in the second period, starting with a hit from Stars right wing Jamie Langenbrunner that knocked Niclas Wallin into the boards headfirst. Shortly after that, Douglas Murray had a high hit on Dallas left wing Loui Eriksson in open ice as the two were pursuing what Murray called a “50-50 puck.”
Neither Wallin nor Eriksson returned.
Dallas pest Steve Ott went after Murray following the hit on Eriksson. Both players earned fighting majors with Ott getting an additional minor penalty for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct.
—Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic was struck in the throat by a puck when he blocked a shot that ramped up his stick in the third period. He played after that, but was taken to a Dallas hospital where he was expected to spend the night as a precautionary measure in case of swelling
—Braun, who didn’t play against Chicago, replaced Jason Demers in the lineup.
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
