SAN JOSE
– Three days off didn’t seem to slow the surging San Jose Sharks
Saturday night.
The Anaheim Ducks fell 5-2 to the Sharks at sold-out HP
Pavilion, earning San Jose a 4-0 record over its Pacific Division
rivals this season.
SAN JOSE – Three days off didn’t seem to slow the surging San Jose Sharks Saturday night.
The Anaheim Ducks fell 5-2 to the Sharks at sold-out HP Pavilion, earning San Jose a 4-0 record over its Pacific Division rivals this season.
The Sharks earned wins over Dallas and Chicago Monday and Tuesday before beginning a three-day respite over Christmas. The team’s top line continued to celebrate into Saturday evening, combining for eight points as the Sharks maintained a three-point edge atop the division over the Phoenix Coyotes.
Patrick Marleau scored the game’s first two goals. The ex-captain pocketed his 300th career goal 2:15 into action by tapping home a shot by Dany Heatley. Marleau was at the right post at 15:19 of the period when he stuffed in a short rebound of a Heatley one-timer for the 2-0 cushion.
Joe Thornton, after assisting on both Marleau goals, helped Heatley on a goal for the 3-0 lead 7:41 into the second period.
Thornton, holding a five-point edge in the scoring race after Saturday’s action, fed Heatley the puck inside the Ducks blueline. Heatley skated across the slot and attempted to put a shot toward the net, but defenseman James Wisniewski deflected the puck right back to the shooter. As Heatley fell to the ice, the winger whipped a shot that dropped between the pads of goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere for his 23rd goal of the campaign.
“We’re playing good right now,” said Thornton. “We’ve got to keep it up.”
Heatley’s three-point effort kept him comfortably among the top eight scorers in the league.
Heatley’s goal came off a “broken play. I tried to shoot it through the D and it came right back to me so I shot it again.”
The score expanded to 5-0 with two San Jose goals within a span of 15 seconds in the second period.
Ryane Clowe, playing in his 200th NHL game, earned his ninth goal of the year when his hard shot from the top of the left circle deflected off both Wisniewski and Scott Niedermayer before settling into the net at the 13-minute mark.
San Jose’s fifth goal was the result of a cleaner trajectory. Jamie McGinn pounced on a loose puck at the left boards near the blueline, then set off on a 2-on-1 with Kent Huskins. McGinn pulled up at the left dot and whipped a shot inside the left post for his sixth goal of the year at 13:15.
Anaheim stopped Evgeni Nabokov’s shut-out bid with 1:04 left in the second period. When Huskins stumbled trying to take the puck out of the Sharks zone, Kyle Chipchura garnered the loose puck and quickly charged toward Nabokov and jabbed the puck inside the left post to make it 5-1.
Five seconds after a penalty to McGinn ended in the third period, Bobby Ryan wrapped a shot around Nabokov at 4:39 to make it 5-2.
San Jose hosts Phoenix on Monday and Washington on Wednesday before closing out the calendar year Thursday in Phoenix. The Sharks play 11 of 14 January games at home.
