For two-and-a-half periods Wednesday night, a Sharks makeshift
blue line completely smothered the Western Conference’s
highest-scoring offense. And then it all fell apart.
DENVER
For two-and-a-half periods Wednesday night, a Sharks makeshift blue line completely smothered the Western Conference’s highest-scoring offense.
And then it all fell apart.
Late defensive lapses by the Sharks helped allow Colorado to tie the game with two third-period goals and then Kevin Porter struck for the game-winner in overtime as the Avalanche rallied to beat San Jose 4-3 at the Pepsi Center.
“Those last 10 minutes,” said defenseman Dan Boyle, “they obviously took it to us.”
It was a stunning turn of events for the Sharks who, in the silent locker room, still seemed to be trying to process what the heck had just happened to them and how they had squandered this game.
“When you have an opportunity to close the door on a team in this league, you have to slam it shut,” defenseman Jason Demers said. “We have to learn to close it out. We’ve got to fix that.”
But as far as goaltender Antero Niittymaki was concerned, the only thing that needed to be fixed on this night was his own play. Niittymaki claimed the fault was all his — that when a goaltender only faces 22 shots, he better not let in four goals.
“This one is on me,” Niittymaki said. “We were absolutely dominant for so much of the game. I’ll take the blame for this loss. We shouldn’t have thrown that game away.”
He was especially disconsolate about the final goal.
Porter took the puck near the center line and went flying down the left boards. He picked up speed and blew past Sharks defenseman Kent Huskins, who had stepped up to meet the rush, as he cut toward the goal. From there it was a race, and Huskins could only flail at Porter as the Colorado center’s shot beat Niittymaki low on his stick-side with 2:53 remaining in overtime.
“Just a terrible goal,” Niittymaki said. “It’s terribly disappointing. It should never happen.”
In fact, it’s hard to understand how the Sharks (9-5-3) didn’t come away with two points.
They racked up 43 shots. After being shut out in their previous three road games — a drought that had reached 185 minutes and 57 seconds, dating back to Oct. 23 — the Sharks had broken through with goals by Boyle, Mike Moore and Logan Couture. For Moore, fresh from Worcester, it was his first NHL goal in just his second career game.
And a revamped defensive corps, that was playing youngsters Moore and Derek Joslin in the place of ailing veterans Douglas Murray and Niclas Wallin, had done a stellar job of putting the clamps on the Avalanche’s explosive offense. Colorado had only 12 shots in the first two periods.
So when Jamie McGinn batted home a goal past Colorado goaltender Peter Budaj at the 5:35 mark of the third period, the Sharks momentarily took a 4-1 lead and seemed in total command. But the goal was disallowed when it was ruled that McGinn’s stick had been above the crossbar.
“I thought it was under,” McGinn said. “If that counted, it definitely would have put the game out of reach.”
Instead, it was all downhill from there for the Sharks.
Suddenly, the defensive pressure eased, and the speedy Avalanche attack took advantage of the extra space. A streaking Chris Stewart got past Moore and then beat Niittymaki at the 8:38 mark of the period to make it 3-2. Paul Stastny notched the equalizer with 5:11 left in regulation.
By that point, the Sharks were just hanging on for dear life. In the overtime, Porter and the rest of the Avalanche (10-7-1) had a little more left in their tank than the Sharks did.
“We’re a mature enough team that we should be able to put the closers out there and finish it,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “It wasn’t a situation where we went to sleep, it just happened. But live and learn.”
And move on, too. The Sharks will have no time to stew about letting this one get away because they play again Thursday night in Dallas.
— Story by Mark Emmons, San Jose Mercury News
