Here’s how bunched up the Pacific Division standings are. The
Sharks knew before Monday night’s game against the Dallas Stars
that a regulation victory would move them into a tie for first
place. A regulation loss? Well, that would put them into the cellar
because the Los Angeles Kings had beaten the Detroit Red Wings a
few hours earlier.
SAN JOSE
Here’s how bunched up the Pacific Division standings are.
The Sharks knew before Monday night’s game against the Dallas Stars that a regulation victory would move them into a tie for first place. A regulation loss? Well, that would put them into the cellar because the Los Angeles Kings had beaten the Detroit Red Wings a few hours earlier.
By the end of the night, the Sharks had earned one point—just enough to stay out of the bottom—as Derek Joslin’s first career goal and Ryane Clowe’s third in the past two games were not enough offense, and the Stars skated away with a 3-2 shootout decision at HP Pavilion.
Goalie Antti Niemi lost his chance to even his won-lost record for the season, giving up goals to Jamie Benn and Mike Ribeiro before getting beat by Benn and Brad Richards in the first two rounds of the shootout while Dallas goalie Andrew Raycroft gave up a goal to Joe Pavelski, but stopped Logan Couture and Clowe.
“We lie to you every time we tell you we don’t look at the standings,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said before the game. “We look at the standings, day one. We look at it and we’re aware of it. It’s probably brought to our attention more in these situations because it’s so tight.”
This was the second meeting this season between the two teams and McLellan was hoping his players had learned more than the obvious importance of protecting a two-goal lead in the third period, something they didn’t do in Dallas en route to a 5-4 overtime loss.
“Strong start,” he emphasized, pointing out that in the Nov 18 loss, the Stars jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
But the Sharks fell behind again at 6:17 of the first period when Mike Ribeiro outpositioned Marc-Edouard Vlasic behind the goal and sent the puck to Benn cruising into the slot and his one-timer beat Niemi.
San Jose was outshot 11-8 in the first period, then seemed to find its stride in the second when a pair of goals precisely two minutes apart gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead.
Joe Thornton set up the first, controlling the puck behind the Dallas net while waiting for a teammate to find an open spot. Eventually, Joslin did just that, pinching in from the blue line to fire a 25-foot wrist shot at a sharp angle from deep inside the left faceoff circle that eluded Raycroft at 6:56.
The Sharks’ second goal was almost a carbon copy of their only regulation tally against Chicago on Saturday night when Jason Demers skated down the right sideboards and threw the puck toward the crease where it went into the net off Clowe.
San Jose continued to dominate play, but a hooking penalty called against Joe Pavelski at 17:00 put Dallas on the power play and 40 seconds later, Ribeiro deflected a shot by Stephane Robidas from the blue line over Niemi’s shoulder, and the teams went into the third period tied at 2-2.
The Sharks had more success on the penalty kill in the third period, killing off a call against Dan Boyle at 8:56 when he hooked Stars left wing James Neal as he cut diagonally toward the goal. But they failed to score on their only power-play opportunity with Dallas pest Steve Ott in the box for tripping Derek Joslin.
That left the Sharks where they hoped they’d be at the end of the night, though McLellan said the important thing to him isn’t the hypothetical “if the playoffs began today” seeding.
“You’re not worried about being third one day and tenth the next day,” McLellan said after the morning skate. “You go three games and you can be in third, tenth and second. You can’t worry about the number, you have to worry about the streak—the winning streak or the losing streak.”
— Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
