Patrick Marleau has borne the brunt of the criticism during San Jose's recent postseason disappointments, and that carried right into the first two games of the Sharks' first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks. That is until the Sharks' captain came up with the game-deciding goal in Tuesday night's 4-3 victory over Anaheim at the Honda Center. Marleau's tip-in from the slot came with 10:33 left in the third period and the Sharks on a power play after Corey Perry was called for hooking San Jose's Dan Boyle.
That gave the Sharks their fourth one-goal lead of the night, and they held on as Bobby Ryan got off the only shot for Anaheim after the Ducks pulled goalie Jonas Hiller with 1:30 left. The eighth-seeded Ducks lead the series two games to one over the President's Cup winners.
Marleau's goal was a deflection of a nifty pass from Rob Blake, stationed at the point, one of the many big moments for the veteran Blake and his blue-line partner Boyle. Blake scored the Sharks' first goal 5:34 into the game, and Boyle scored the next two, the first 13:07 into the first period on the power play and the second 1:05 into the second. Blake and Boyle were both added to the Sharks' roster during the offseason to provide some advanced playoff experience -- both men have been part of Stanley Cup winning teams, Blake with Colorado in 2001 and Boyle with Tampa Bay in 2004.
This became an official trend: Defensemen carried much of the offensive load, with five of the first six goals in the game coming from blueliners, including Anaheim's James Wisniewski 14:50 into the first period and Chris Pronger 11:50 into the second period. Rookie Ryan scored Anaheim's first goal, which came with a man advantage 11:12 into the game.
The Sharks came out looking more aggressive than they had the first two games, and their more up-tempo play and their shifting lines helped them capitalize on scoring chances. They also were penalized more than they had been in the previous two games, but the Ducks scored just once in five chances with the advantage.
San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov stopped 27 of 30 shots, and Hiller stopped four of 35. Marleau's goal was his first of this postseason but the 35th postseason goal of his career.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-22-2009 @ 5:14PM
geoffball said...
It seems the Sharks showed up with more than the ho-hum, it's all good NorCal attitude, you described them with yesterday. Boyle certainly put his money where his mouth was.
Marleau was where he needed to be when the game was on the line. Most of the rest of the game (and the others, too), he's been on the shutdown Getzlaf line, so I'm not surprised he's not scoring much.
Thorton had an assist. It's nice that Blake and Boyle can step and the Sharks can score somewhere else. If the second line can score, then it's on.
Don't forget the energy that Torrey Mitchell brought to the team. The guy played two games in AHL all season and played a great game. And Murray hung in there with his old pal Parros.
The Sharks have a lot of positives they can take away from a win. Imagine if they didn't have those painful turnovers.
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