Sharks playoff hopes fading fast with loss to Calgary
San Jose – The San Jose Sharks moved one game closer to extinction in the Stanley Cup Playoff race Monday night with a 4-3 setback to the Calgary Flames at HP Pavilion at San Jose.
The Sharks have 29 games left on the schedule, leaving little room for error for a club mired in 12th place in the 15-team Western Conference. Colorado is currently eighth with 64 points. San Jose has 56 points with three teams closer to Colorado – Anaheim (61), Minnesota (58) and Phoenix (57) – than are the Men in Teal.
The win allowed coach Darryl Sutter’s Flames to snap a three-game winless streak and remain tied with the Vancouver Canucks for first place in the Northwest Division.
San Jose boasted an 18-5-2 record when scoring the game’s first goal. The Sharks began the scoring 8:45 into action when Patrick Marleau hit the net while San Jose enjoyed a 5-on-3 power play. Calgary rebounded with one goal in the first period and two back-breakers in the second to effectively quiet the home club.
Two high-sticking calls against Flames set up the San Jose two-man advantage at the 8:32 mark of the first period. When Calgary’s Jordan Leopold was forced to the right flank of the Flames zone to cover Joe Thornton, Marleau collected Thornton’s touch-pass in the slot and whipped the puck past goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.
San Jose rookie Matt Carkner earned his first penalty in his first NHL game by tripping Calgary’s Shean Donovan at 16:50 of the first. The Flames needed 36 seconds to tie the score, Daymond Langkow backhanding a missed shot on net from Robin Regehr past a diving Evgeni Nabokov.
Calgary enjoyed a 14-10 edge in shots on net in the second period on the way to a 3-1 cushion.
Chuck Kobasew netted the tie-breaking goal at 4:31 with the visitors on a power play. The winger banged home his 16th goal of the campaign when he successfully stuffed a rebound of his own shot at the left goalpost past Nabokov.
Nabokov was behind his own net at the time of the third Calgary goal. The netminder chose to challenge Flame Stephane Yelle for the puck along the backboard. The Flame was able to wrist the puck to an unmarked Chris Simon for the empty-net five-footer at 13:12.
Calgary center Matthew Lombardi hustled to his third goal of the season 2:43 into the third period. With the clubs skating 4-on-4, Lombardi burst with the puck from the left dot toward Nabokov, tumbling to the ice just before contact with the goalie. The point-blank shot skidded between the goalie’s pads.
San Jose’s Milan Michalek made it 4-2 with a rocket shot from the top of the left-wing circle off a cross-ice pass from Marleau at 13:31 of the third. Carkner earned his first NHL point with the first assist.
The Sharks crawled within one goal with 4:48 left in the contest. The home team needed just 11 seconds of power play time to make it 4-3. Joe Thornton’s shot from 20 feet out rebounded off Kiprusoff. Jonathan Cheechoo put back the second chance past Kiprusoff as Scott Thornton screened the goalie’s view.
