Two goals from rookie standout Bobby Ryan and stout goaltending
by Jonas Hiller were merely the largest of huge contributions that
gave the Ducks a 4-0 victory over top-seeded San Jose in Game 4 of
an opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday night at Honda
Center
ANAHEIM
If the Ducks didn’t have the San Jose Sharks on the edge of a cliff before, they certainly do now.
Two goals from rookie standout Bobby Ryan and stout goaltending by Jonas Hiller were merely the largest of huge contributions that gave the Ducks a 4-0 victory over top-seeded San Jose in Game 4 of an opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday night at Honda Center.
The victory put the eighth-seeded Ducks up 3-1 in the best-of-7 series and provides an opportunity for them to close out the Sharks by winning Game 5 on Saturday night in San Jose.
“I certainly don’t think they expected this,” Ryan said. “We said all along that we’re not your typical eight seed. Obviously, we feel we belong in that upper echelon in the Western Conference.”
Turning in by far their best top-to-bottom performance of the series, the Ducks also received a goal and an assist from Corey Perry, an empty-net goal from Drew Miller with 40.1 seconds left, two assists from Ryan Getzlaf and a tremendous play by defenseman Ryan Whitney that led to the game’s first goal.
With goals in three consecutive games and four overall, Ryan tied Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and the Boston duo of Michael Ryder and Phil Kessel for the NHL postseason lead. Hiller, who stopped 31 shots, became the first league’s first goalie this year to post two playoff shutouts.
The Sharks, who have suffered second-round playoff losses each of the past three seasons, had no answer for the top Ducks line of Ryan, Getzlaf and Perry, which victimized standout San Jose center Joe Thornton on the first three goals.
“We haven’t been able to handle them down low,” first-year Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “Most of the damage has been done by Bobby Ryan. He’s a tremendous player. Up to tonight, I thought Joe had an impact on the series, a positive impact. Tonight, he was obviously on the negative side of that. The Getzlaf-Perry line played better than Joe and his line.”
The questions about postseason underachievement that have dogged San Jose for years will only intensify now.
“Disappointing, because we’re better than we showed,” McLellan said. “I think our character was questioned tonight. We we’ll have to see how we respond. I thought their team was extremely hungry.
They won a lot of board battles, a lot of puck battles. Their back pressure was second to none. They were very committed.”
Ryan scored twice within a three-minute, 40-second span of the second period, albeit sandwiched around a 16-minute delay because of a glass breakage between the team benches.
Whitney ignited a rush that led to Ryan’s first goal, at 6:33. Whitney rode Thornton off the puck in the Ducks’ zone and fed the puck forward to Getzlaf, who broke across the blue line and drew Thornton and Sharks defenseman Rob Blake to him as he cut toward the left-wing boards.
Getzlaf slipped a pass behind him to Ryan, who darted around San Jose winger Jonathan Cheechoo into the slot and shot past Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, beating goaltender Evgeni Nabokov between his pads.
“Getzy made a great play coming through the middle,” Whitney said. “That was just a really good overall play. Those two guys made it happen.”
After the lengthy play stoppage at 9:44, the Ducks’ top line of Getzlaf, Ryan and Perry immediately pressured around the San Jose net, with Getzlaf winning a rebound from Thornton and pushing the puck back to defenseman Chris Pronger at the left point.
Pronger eventually sent the puck behind the net, where Perry twice attempted shots after stickhandling toward the front. Perry’s second shot rebounded into the slot, where Ryan again fired past Vlasic and the sprawled Nabokov at 10:13.
The Ducks also victimized Thornton on Perry’s goal, which stretched their lead to 3-0 at 14:09 of the third period.
NOTES:
Ryan became just the second Ducks rookie to score multiple goals in a playoff game. Defenseman Francois Beauchemin scored both Ducks goals in a 5-2 loss to visiting Calgary in Game 3 of a 2006 opening-round series eventually won by the Ducks in seven games. … Whitney has recorded an assist in each of the four games against San Jose.
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Story by Dan Wood, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
