Smith nets game-winner in 3-1 game-five victory
SAN JOSE – No Marco Sturm, Alyn McCauley or Scott Thornton? No problem.
The San Jose Sharks used a combination of Marcel Goc and Mark Smith to snare the winning goal Thursday night as the hosts throttled the St. Louis Blues 3-1, completing a 4-1 series victory in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Coach Ron Wilson’s Sharks will take Friday off, practice Saturday and spend preparation time Sunday toward meeting another challenge beginning next week. Wilson closed the post-game press conference by guessing that the Sharks’ next opponent will be Colorado, although the Sharks could also face either Vancouver or Dallas.
Smith, playing in his fourth post-season game, netted the game-winner 9:34 into the second period.
Linemate Marcel Goc made his NHL debut due to an injury to Thornton in Tuesday’s win in St. Louis. Goc created the scoring chance when he suprised Blues defenseman Christian Backman by chippng the puck away from the Blue deep in the St. Louis zone and onto the stick of a streaking Smith.
“Marcel put it right on my stick,” said Smith of his first post-season goal. “I was lucky Ozzy (goaltender Chris Osgood) was looking the other way. I saw the open net. That was a great feeling.”
“It seems appropriate that someone no one would have expected to score would make the game-winner,” said Wilson.
“It was a phenomenal effort by Marcel,” added the coach. “Here’s someone at age 20 playing in his first NHL game and he was cool as a cucumber. He jumped on the d-man, caused a turn-over and got it to Smitty. He didn’t look at all out of place. His first point is on a series-determining game-winner. That’s pretty neat.”
Smith’s goal created a 2-1 lead. The Sharks finished the scoring 16:22 into the third period when Mike Ricci deflected a long shot by Scott Hannan past Osgood.
“That was a classic Ricci goal – a deflection,” said Wilson. “The d-man fired the puck up the middle, Scotty intercepted it and put the puck on net.”
San Jose never trailed in finishing off the series in eight days. The Sharks took a 1-0 lead just 1:50 into play when Brad Stuart pounced on a long rebound of a Vincent Damphousse shot and lined the puck into the cage from 15 feet out. The Blues squared it at 1-1 when Brian Savage fought off defenseman Tom Preissing at the right goalpost to tap in a soft feed from Doug Weight at the 13:10 mark of the first period.
“Our speed and our discipline” were the keys to the series, confirmed Wilson. “Our penalty kill was phenomenal. We had three huge people missing from the line-up, but we didn’t have to change how we played. I have the utmost confidence in our players to stay in focus.”
