After spending the better part of the past month whipping
opponents on the road, the San Jose Sharks said there would be no
letdown now that they have returned to HP Pavilion for a long
homestand. They kept that promise Tuesday night
— barely. The Sharks earned a hard-fought, 2-1 shootout victory
over the previously reeling Colorado Avalanche as San Jose improved
its winning streak to seven games.
SAN JOSE
After spending the better part of the past month whipping opponents on the road, the San Jose Sharks said there would be no letdown now that they have returned to HP Pavilion for a long homestand.
They kept that promise Tuesday night — barely.
The Sharks earned a hard-fought, 2-1 shootout victory over the previously reeling Colorado Avalanche as San Jose improved its winning streak to seven games.
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Down 1-0 with just 2:58 remaining in the third period, Joe Thornton deflected Jason Demers’ slap shot past Colorado goalie Brian Elliott to tie the score.
Then, after a scoreless overtime, Ryane Clowe scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Sharks the victory.
Goaltender Antti Niemi, who earlier in the day had received a four-year, $15.2 million contract extension, made sure Clowe’s shootout goal stood up by blanking three Colorado shooters.
Niemi, who made 18 saves in his 19th consecutive start, was only beaten once on the night — a third-period goal by defenseman Erik Johnson.
The Avalanche (26-30-8) had won just once in its previous 14 games, being outscored 57-24 in the process. But it was good enough to give San Jose (37-21-6) trouble on this night.
The Sharks, who entered the night on a 15-2-1 run, were returning home after playing most of February on the road. San Jose coach Todd McLellan had called it “a myth” that teams sometimes struggle in the first game back in their own building after a long trip.
“There’s no excuses for underperforming,” McLellan said after the morning skate.
But winning at the Shark Tank hasn’t been as easy as winning on the road this season for the team in teal.
And the Sharks didn’t exactly throw themselves a welcome-home party early against a struggling Colorado team that is one of the few Western Conference teams not in the playoff hunt and had been spanked 4-0 by the San Jose on Feb. 19.
The Sharks started with a lackluster first period where they managed only nine shots on the Avalanche’s Elliott, none of them were particularly good scoring chances.
It was more of the same in the second period where the Sharks controlled the pace, but couldn’t put much serious pressure on Elliott. The closest the Sharks came was at the 5:52 mark when Elliott made a nifty leg-pad save on an 18-foot wrist shot by Devin Setoguchi.
By the end of the period, the game remained scoreless, and the Sharks — who have the NHL’s No. 3 power play — had gone 0 for 3 with the man advantage. The special-teams unit looked stagnant without All-Star defenseman Dan Boyle, who usually plays the point but was missing his second consecutive game with an upper-body injury.
The Avalanche finally broke the scoreless deadlock at the 1:18 mark of the third with an unassisted power-play goal by Johnson. Colorado took quick advantage of a holding-the-stick penalty against Sharks defenseman Niclas Wallin.
Johnson, a former No. 1 overall pick by St Louis who was recently acquired by Colorado, beat Niemi with a top-shelf, glove-side wrist shot from 36 feet.
The Sharks had a glorious scoring chance at the 10:28 mark when Joe Pavelski’s wrist shot got past Elliott but clanged off the crossbar.
But Thornton’s late goal, deflecting Demers’ shot from near the blue line past Elliott, sent the game into overtime.
— Story by Mark Emmons, San Jose Mercury News
