The third period has been a problem for the San Jose Sharks all
season, but not Thursday night. San Jose goals by Ryane Clowe and
Dany Heatley broke up a tied hockey game at HP Pavilion and the
Sharks held on for a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals,
maintaining their position in the tight Western Conference playoff
race.
SAN JOSE
The third period has been a problem for the San Jose Sharks all season, but not Thursday night.
San Jose goals by Ryane Clowe and Dany Heatley broke up a tied hockey game at HP Pavilion and the Sharks held on for a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals, maintaining their position in the tight Western Conference playoff race.
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The Sharks also got a first-period goal by Joe Pavelski while goalie Antti Niemi made 23 saves for the victory. Washington got its goals from Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.
The win gave the Sharks a sweep of the two-game, inter-conference series between the two teams. San Jose beat Washington 2-0 at the Verizon Center 10 days earlier.
The game within the game whenever the Sharks play the Capitals is the one between defenseman Douglas Murray and Washington superstar Ovechkin.
“You love playing against guys like that,” Murray said before the game. “It doesn’t matter what level you’re playing in, you always want to measure yourself against the best. He’s definitely a fun challenge.”
Ovechkin said he also enjoyed the matchup.
“He’s a big, tough guy and he likes to make some hits against me and against everybody,” Ovechkin said. “It’s a challenge — but he’s a defenseman, not a goalie.”
It took about 30 seconds for Murray and Ovechkin to renew their rivalry.
On the opening shift, Murray crunched Ovechkin into the boards seconds after the Washington left wing hit Joe Thornton. The 25-year-old Russian later earned the game’s first penalty for interfering with Murray behind the Washington net when the 30-year-old Swede led an offensive rush.
But it was the game’s second penalty — and this time Ovechkin was the victim of a trip by left wing Ben Eager at 18:40 — that led to the only scoring in the first period.
At first, things went San Jose’s way as Patrick Marleau chipped the puck out of the defensive zone around Capitals defenseman John Carlson. Marleau then led a 2-on-1 rush down the ice, passing the puck around a sprawling Ovechkin to Pavelski, whose shot beat goalie Michal Neuvirth for a short-handed goal.
But the 1-0 lead lasted only 22 seconds as Carlson found Ovechkin alone in the high slot and his 34-foot wrist shot beat Niemi.
Neither team scored in the second period, though both had chances.
Early on, it was Ovechkin just outside the crease, trying to prod a loose puck past Niemi. Midway through the period, the Sharks narrowly missed taking the lead when Joe Thornton’s deflection of a Devin Setoguchi centering pass went just wide.
And later it was Washington that appeared to have the best opportunity to score when right wing Alexander Semin intercepted a Sharks pass at his own blue line, then skated in on Niemi all alone until defenseman Niclas Wallin managed to break up the breakaway.
The 1-1 tie was broken at 4:27 of the third period when Neuvirth wasn’t able to handle what looked like a harmless shot by Kyle Wellwood from the left faceoff circle.
The puck ended up unprotected in the crease and Clowe had no trouble backhanding it into the open side of the net to make it 2-1.
San Jose’s first power-play goal in six games, and Heatley’s first in seven, gave the Sharks a two-goal cushion. With Capitals defenseman John Erskine off the ice for interference, Dan Boyle launched a shot from the blue line that somehow was deflected by three Sharks — Pavelski, Thornton and Heatley — en route to the back of the net at 10:49.
The Capitals made it a 3-2 game with 1:55 left in the game when Backstrom’s shot from the high slot through traffic beat Niemi, but that’s where the scoring ended.
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
