Not this time. The San Jose Sharks threatened to erase a
three-goal deficit for a second consecutive game Thursday night,
but their comeback fell apart. And what might have been a great
trip ended up only a good one as San Jose lost 6-3 to a Buffalo
Sabres team that capitalized on two glaring turnovers and one lucky
bounce.
BUFFALO, N.Y.
Not this time.
The San Jose Sharks threatened to erase a three-goal deficit for a second consecutive game Thursday night, but their comeback fell apart. And what might have been a great trip ended up only a good one as San Jose lost 6-3 to a Buffalo Sabres team that capitalized on two glaring turnovers and one lucky bounce.
It was the 14th time in 15 tries that the Sharks left this Western New York city without a victory.
Impressive victories in Detroit and Philadelphia enabled the Sharks to finish the trip with a 3-2 record. But waking hours during the long flight home likely were dominated by thoughts of what might have been.
“We talked about not being satisfied with three road wins,” Dan Boyle said. “We wanted to come out of here with a fourth, but a couple mistakes cost us some goals.”
The most deflating mistake came 31 seconds into the third period. Logan Couture’s team-leading 14th goal of the season and Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s first had brought the Sharks within one at the end of two periods after falling behind 3-0.
Patrick Marleau had control of the puck along the sideboards in the defensive zone but lost it to Sabres forward Paul Gaustad who threw it toward the front of the net where Cody McCormick chipped it in over goalie Antti Niemi.
“I knew he was there,” Marleau said of Gaustad. “I was thinking about going to Boyler, and it looked like he was going to peel off their guy, but he (Gaustad) cut in front of me and took it right away. You can’t let that happen.”
Early on, the Sharks did not look like a team playing its fifth road game over eight nights, and, in fact, came out stronger than in the two previous games.
So how did they end up trailing 3-0?
Buffalo’s first goal resulted from a fluky carom when a shot by McCormick struck Gaustad’s skate and Boyle’s visor before floating past Niemi at 12:18 of the first period.
Thomas Vanek scored his first of two goals at 6:48 of the second period after a sequence of events that began with Jamal Mayers losing a faceoff — and coach Todd McLellan shouldered responsibility for that one.
“I had the wrong guys out for a faceoff in our zone,” the coach said, “and it ended up costing us.”
The third Sabres goal was a gift from Jason Demers. With San Jose on the power play, he whiffed on an attempted pass along the blue line. The puck ended up on Buffalo forward Jason Pominville’s stick. and he buried it at 13:26 after a short-handed breakaway.
“It’s just a matter of execution,” Demers said. “It’s something I get nine times out of 10 right, and tonight I didn’t get it right and that’s what happens.”
The comeback attempt began with the Sharks on the power play when Couture’s blast from the top of the left faceoff circle beat Sabres goalie Ryan Miller at 15:50. The Sharks made it a 3-2 game with 45 seconds left in the middle period when Vlasic skated around Buffalo forward Patrick Kaleta and found the back of the net.
Marleau’s error led to the game-winner, though Douglas Murray brought the Sharks within one again with his first goal of the season at 9:26 of the third period.
That’s where the score stayed until Gaustad scored his second of the night into an empty net with 26.6 seconds remaining, and Vanek capped off an odd-man rush with Niemi back between the pipes with 8.7 seconds on the clock.
McLellan, who was highly critical of his team’s overall performance after the victory in Detroit, was kinder in his assessment of the loss in Buffalo.
“I thought we played hard considering our travels. I liked our competitiveness,” he said. “That fourth goal was very deflating, yet our guys didn’t roll over. Jumbo did a very good job on the bench. He said, ‘Hey, it’s over with, let’s move on.’ The guys responded and we kept going. That’s a good sign.”
The Sharks have Friday off before the Chicago Blackhawks show up at HP Pavilion on Saturday night.
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
