For the most part, the San Jose Sharks held their own Wednesday
night when it came to the pushing and shoving in what was expected
to be a physical game. The scoreboard? That was a very different
story. Paced by a Corey Perry hat trick that included his
NHL-leading 50th goal of the season and inspired chants of
”
MVP, MVP
”
from the less than sold-out Honda Center crowd, the Anaheim
Ducks gave San Jose a 6-2 spanking that cooled off the NHL’s
hottest team in a hurry.
ANAHEIM
For the most part, the San Jose Sharks held their own Wednesday night when it came to the pushing and shoving in what was expected to be a physical game.
The scoreboard? That was a very different story.
Paced by a Corey Perry hat trick that included his NHL-leading 50th goal of the season and inspired chants of “MVP, MVP” from the less than sold-out Honda Center crowd, the Anaheim Ducks gave San Jose a 6-2 spanking that cooled off the NHL’s hottest team in a hurry.
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The defeat cost the Sharks a chance to pull three points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings, who lost earlier in the evening to the Carolina Hurricanes, in their battle for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.
And it also may have breathed new hopes and dreams into an Anaheim team that still hasn’t clinched a playoff berth, but could end up as San Jose’s opponent in the first round.
McLellan chose Wednesday night to give goalie Antero Niittymaki his first start since Jan. 13, but it’s unlikely the reincarnation of Jacque Plante would have fared much better on a night when San Jose forgot to play a disciplined game and the penalty kill gave up four power-play goals.
Dan Boyle and Ben Eager scored for the Sharks while Anaheim also got tallies from Cam Fowler, Teemu Selanne and Jason Blake. Niitthymaki ended up stopping 28 of the 34 shots he faced.
By starting Niittymaki, McLellan ended Antti Niemi’s streak of 34 consecutive starts that began Jan. 15 and was the second longest in franchise history. Over that period, Niemi had established himself as San Jose’s No. 1 goalie by going 25-4-4 with a 2.05 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.
But McLellan rejected the notion he was using a backup goaltender in what was considered an important game against the Ducks, saying he wanted to have a tandem ready to go for the playoffs.
“We’re coming here to play and win,” McLellan said after the morning skate. “We expect Niitty to perform and be part of that.”
That, of course, didn’t come to pass.
Even though the Sharks were trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes on goals by Perry and Fowler, it was the second period that was their undoing.
Each team had a two-man advantage for an extended period of time then, but only Anaheim could capitalize. The Sharks had good puck movement, but couldn’t get it past Anaheim goalie Ray Emery while both Todd Marchant and Toni Lydman were in the penalty box for 1:15.
But when successive penalties to Dany Heatley and Torrey Mitchell put the Ducks up by two for the same amount of time, Perry needed only 18 seconds to score his third goal of the night and Selanne deflected a shot by Cam Fowler past Niittymaki 15 seconds before the teams would have been at even strength.
Eager’s goal was the only scoring of the third period and came against Anaheim goalie Dan Ellis, who replaced Emery midway through the game after the starting goalie left with a minor injury.
The game was expected to be a physical one as the teams were clearly in a foul mood when they left the HP Pavilion ice after San Jose’s 4-2 victory Saturday night.
Much of the Ducks’ wrath that night was directed at Douglas Murray for what they perceived as a late hit on Lubomir Visnovsky, and just more than 12 minutes into the game, Ducks forward Brad Winchester dropped the gloves with Murray, who gave more than he got.
Later, Heatley earned four minutes for a roughing bout with Ryan and Devin Setoguchi was given the same penalty for a hit on Ryan Getzlaf.
But the main bout of the night was between Anaheim enforcer George Parros and Sharks rookie tough guy Brandon Mashinter, who had been recalled earlier in the day from Worcester to replace the injured Ryane Clowe, and Parros earned the edge in that one.
The Sharks finish the regular season with back-to-back games against the Phoenix Coyotes beginning Friday night in Arizona and winding up the next night at HP Pavilion.
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
