The San Jose Sharks began a key home-and-home series with the
Anaheim Ducks on the short end of a 7-4 contest at sold-out HP
Pavilion Tuesday night.
San Jose – The San Jose Sharks began a key home-and-home series with the Anaheim Ducks on the short end of a 7-4 contest at sold-out HP Pavilion Tuesday night.
The Pacific Division-pacing Ducks host San Jose tonight, the first of eight consecutive games away from the Tank for the Sharks.
San Jose entered the series with nine wins in the past 14 outings, while Anaheim had cooled off with just four wins in the last 14 tries.
The seven goals allowed was a high at home for the season for San Jose, eclipsing the five by Colorado on Dec. 7.
“What bothered me is that we didn’t respond to adversity,” said Sharks coach Ron Wilson. “When Anaheim went up 3-1, we didn’t stick with the plan. We gave up too many outnumbered attacks. Anaheim scored on every chance they had. We just didn’t finish. I’m sure we out-chanced them. We recovered some pride in the third period.”
Anaheim fashioned a 2-1 lead after one period by bunching two goals within a span of 32 seconds.
Travis Moen notched his eighth goal of the season 13:16 into action.
Center Samuel Paulsson won a face-off in the Ducks defensive zone and slipped the puck to Moen. The winger controlled the puck to the redline before chipping it into the San Jose zone past defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Moen jetted into the zone, regained control and protected the puck from Vlasic before lining a hard shot into the far top corner of the net past goalie Vesa Toskala.
Paulsson was on the ice 32 seconds later when passes from brothers Scott and Rob Niedermeyer allowed the center to whip a shot past Toskala’s right shoulder from the inside edge of the left circle.
San Jose cut the Anaheim lead in half with 18:09 gone in the period. Mark Bell gained control of the puck behind the Ducks net and sent a shot toward goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The puck rolled under Giguere, who was unable to retrieve it before Mike Grier rushed the net and tapped the puck across the goalline.
Anaheim regained control of the contest with four goals in the second period.
Toskala, entering play with a 2.21 goals against average and .915 save percentage while building a 22-7-1 mark, had little chance on any of the Ducks scores.
The Ducks took a 3-1 lead at the 8:29 mark when Andy McDonald turned a quick cross-ice pass from Chris Kunitz into a slapshot from 15 feet out into a wide-open net behind Toskala.
Anaheim made it a 4-1 cushion when Sharks defenseman Matt Carle sent an attempted clearing pass into the slot in front of Toskala. Rob Niedermeyer quickly turned the turnover into a wrister into the goal at 11:51.
Dustin Penner snuck behind the Sharks defense to deposit his 18th goal of the campaign past Toskala at 16:13. Moen followed with a similar move behind the Sharks defense for his second goal of the night at 18:27.
Although the Sharks whiffed on several scoring chances in the first two periods, the hosts regrouped in the third period for three goals.
San Jose connected on its first two power plays of the final period to trail 6-3.
Patrick Marleau scored on a wrap-around move to beat Giguere at 1:19. Jonathan Cheechoo scored off assists from Joe Thornton and Marleau at the 12:26 mark as the Sharks needed 26 seconds of power play to make it 6-3.
Cheechoo powered across the top of the slot and sent a 30-footer past Giguere at the 14:17 mark for a 6-4 margin.
San Jose went on the power play with 3:33 left in play. Anaheim finished the scoring with a short-handed empty-net goal by Ryan Getzlaf.
