The Vancouver Canucks have been playing such good hockey as of
late that Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle had to invent a word Monday
to describe it.
”
This is an extreme amount of hotness right now,
”
he said of the Canucks, who entered the game on a 14-1-2 roll.
That may help explain why even though San Jose played a solid,
entertaining 60 minutes of hockey, the Sharks still came out on the
short end of a 4-3 score 10 hours later at HP Pavilion.
SAN JOSE
The Vancouver Canucks have been playing such good hockey as of late that Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle had to invent a word Monday to describe it.
“This is an extreme amount of hotness right now,” he said of the Canucks, who entered the game on a 14-1-2 roll.
That may help explain why even though San Jose played a solid, entertaining 60 minutes of hockey, the Sharks still came out on the short end of a 4-3 score 10 hours later at HP Pavilion.
The Sharks got second-period goals from Ryane Clowe, Patrick Marleau and Jamal Mayers, but that all went for naught when Vancouver forward Alex Burrows first deflected a shot, then punched the resulting rebound past Antti Niemi at 8:57 of the third period.
Niemi made 43 saves on the night, but also gave up goals to Daniel Sedin, Alexander Edler and Jannik Hansen.
The Sharks were facing a Canucks team that has done exactly what San Jose has been hoping to do; overcome early-season inconsistency and take off on an extended winning streak.
So how does a team get on a roll like that while everybody else in the Western Conference is treading water?
“Depth,” was Sharks coach Todd McLellan’s explanation after the morning skate. “We were talking about it this morning as a coaching staff. If the (Sedin) twins aren’t at their peak, there’s always other people to pick them up and find ways to score goals.”
Good goaltending and special teams also have contributed, he added, but depth is “how you become a championship club, and we’ve got to get our depth to contribute a little bit more and we’ll find ways to do that.”
Despite playing the previous night in Colorado, Vancouver dominated the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Sharks, 14-7. And the Canucks didn’t need depth to score the only goal of the first period as the twins — Daniel and Henrik Sedin — did the damage.
The play started when Joe Thornton couldn’t hold onto a sharp outlet pass from Jason Demers and it was picked off by Canucks left wing Burrows, who pushed it up the ice to Henrik Sedin who gave it to brother Daniel for his 21st goal at 6:09.
Both teams had better luck finding the net in a second period that ended with the score tied at 3-3.
The Sharks scored their first goal when Benn Ferriero’s shot went across the goal mouth, ending up along the right board where Demers retrieved the puck and sent it right back toward the crease, where Clowe deflected it past Canucks netminder Cory Schneider at 5:08.
At that point, the teams traded power play goals with Vancouver regaining the lead at 8:14 when both its defensemen jumped in on the play and Christian Ehrhoff found a trailing Edler unchecked and his 28-foot shot beat Niemi.
But the Sharks drew even again at 12:18 when the rebound of Dan Boyle’s shot from the top of the right faceoff circle ended up on Marleau’s stick and he drilled it into the Canucks net.
San Jose took its first lead of the night a little more than three minutes later on an odd-man rush when Dany Heatley passed the puck across the ice to Mayers, who kicked it from his skate to his stick and fired it past Schneider, who was distracted by Scott Nichol cutting across the shooting lane.
But with 1:25 left in the second period, Ryan Kesler fired a shot from a tough angle in the left faceoff circle and Hansen converted the rebound to send the teams into the third period deadlocked.
Burrows’ winning goal survived a video review after his stick tipped a shot by former Shark Christian Ehrhoff that appeared headed for Niemi’s glove. Instead it bounced off the goaltender and Burrows was in position to take advantage of the loose puck.
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
