SAN JOSE – This season’s schedule has a little more than two months to go, time for San Jose to play its final 28 games of the regular season. Saturday night’s 5-4 loss to Metropolitan Division cellar-dweller Carolina left San Jose only two points ahead of both Calgary and Vancouver in the struggle for second place in the Pacific Division.
Coach Todd McLellan would have earned his 300th career victory had the Sharks been able to turn back the visitors. Instead, Carolina scored in the final minute of the first period and never trailed in winning for the 19th time in 52 games.
Goaltenders Cam Ward of Carolina and Antti Niemi each brought .915 goals against averages into the game. Ward was saddled with a 12-18-4 record based on the Hurricanes’ 111 goals scored. Only Buffalo, with 97 in the net, boasted fewer goals coming into the weekend.
San Jose was able to pull into a 3-3 tie in the third period with a two-goal explosion in a span of 82 seconds. Tomas Hertl netted his second goal of the game at 2:27. Logan Couture’s slapshot from the right circle left it at 3-3.
Carolina regained the lead at the 15:09 mark when defenseman Andrej Sekera’s headman pass toward the San Jose net ricocheted off the skate of San Jose’s Brenden Dillon and past Niemi.
Hurricane rookie Victor Rask added an empty-netter with 1:10 left in the game. Patrick Marleau completed the scoring with a lofted shot from the left flank over Ward’s shoulder with 54.3 seconds left.
Though Carolina fashioned a 14-9 edge in shots on net in the first period, the first intermission looked to be a scoreless tie until the Hurricanes’ captain Eric Staal recorded his team-pacing 17th goal with 57.7 seconds left. Jiri Tiusty’s low shot from the blueline went wide of the Sharks’ net, but the carom off the endboards allowed Staal to jam the puck past Niemi at the right post.
Carolina rookie Andrej Nestrasil added his second goal of the season 5:33 into the second period. Winger Alexander Semin controlled the puck at the right point before dishing to Nestrasil for the rush down the slot between defenders.
San Jose’s lone goal through two periods came at the 8:26 mark. Rookie Chris Tierney outworked Carolina’s John-Michael Liles for the puck behind the Hurricanes’ net. Tierney’s backhander to Hertl at the bottom of the left circle led to a one-timer under Ward.
The Hurricanes’ regained the two-goal margin when Elias Lindholm whisked the low shot from the top of the right circle inside the left post at the 10:13 mark on a power play.
NOTES: The game drew 17,139…Marc-Edouard Vlasic, reportedly not feeling well prior to the game, was held out of the Sharks’ line-up…San Jose concludes the three-game home stand with games opposite Calgary on Monday and Washington Wednesday.
