First they lost Scott Nichol to an eye injury during the morning
skate. Then they lost Devin Setoguchi after the first period.
Finally, the Sharks lost a 6-1 hockey game to the Vancouver
Canucks.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia
First they lost Scott Nichol to an eye injury during the morning skate. Then they lost Devin Setoguchi after the first period. Finally, the Sharks lost a 6-1 hockey game to the Vancouver Canucks.
All in all, not the kind of Friday night that Sharks coach Todd McLellan envisioned when he looked ahead to the contest earlier in the day.
“It’s time,” he said, “to put two good games back to back of solid effort and full commitment.”
Instead, San Jose suffered its most one-sided defeat of the season.
The depleted Sharks held their own early, but they allowed goals to Raffi Torres and Mikael Samuelsson just 1:48 apart early in the second period, sending everything downhill.
Dany Heatley scored the lone Sharks goal while the Canucks got a second goal from Samuelsson and single tallies from Jeff Tambellini, Alexandre Burrows and Keith Ballard.
McLellan was looking for a second consecutive victory after his team’s 5-2 domination of the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. To that end, he started goalie Antti Niemi in consecutive games for the first time in more than a month.
But San Jose’s hopes were dealt a setback even before the game began.
Nichol and Logan Couture were taking part in a two-on-one drill during the morning skate when Couture’s shot deflected off Niemi’s stick and struck Nichol in the face near the bridge of his nose and his left eye.
“You feel bad, but then you realize there’s nothing you could do about it,” Couture said.
Trainers attended to Nichol on the ice, then helped him to the locker room where they placed a bandage over his left eye before taking him to get stitches and medical tests.
Nichol’s absence forced McLellan to use seven defenseman, inserting rookie Justin Braun into the lineup as the only extra player on the trip. The forward ranks got even thinner when Setoguchi was hurt in the first period and did not return. No details were immediately available as to the nature of the injury.
The Canucks dominated the Sharks in the first period as they outshot San Jose 15-8 and — for the most part — Niemi was up to the challenge, robbing Daniel Sedin after a cross-crease pass.
But Niemi didn’t look good on the one goal that did get past him. Niclas Wallin blocked a shot from the blue line by Vancouver defenseman Alex Edler, but the Sharks goalie appeared to lose sight of the puck and wasn’t in position when Tambellini fired it past him at 9:32.
The Sharks drew even at 15:22 of the first period when Heatley cradled a rebound of a shot by Joe Thornton, then beat Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo through the five hole.
The Canucks took over the game early in the second on two shots that Niemi didn’t have much chance on.
First, Torres was trailing a play before taking a backhand cross-ice pass from Jannik Hansen and firing it past Niemi at 2:36. Next, Vancouver left wing Tanner Glass first blocked a shot in his own zone off Kent Huskins’ stick, then raced down the ice to serve as a screen when Samuelsson rifled the puck into the San Jose net.
Vancouver’s fourth goal was a gift from Dan Boyle, who threw a soft clearing attempt directly onto Samuelsson’s stick in the high slot, and the onetime Shark beat Niemi at 7:00 of the third period.
Burrows added his goal at 14:50 when he slipped in under the Sharks defense, took a Henrik Sedin pass from behind the net and parked it high on the far side.
And Ballard somehow beat Niemi with a clear shot from the blue line at 16:38.
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
