SAN JOSE
– New coach Todd McLellan’s emphasis on players driving to the
net and defensemen shooting from the point paid dividends Friday
night as the San Jose Sharks evened their pre-season record at
1-1..
SAN JOSE – New coach Todd McLellan’s emphasis on players driving to the net and defensemen shooting from the point paid dividends Friday night as the San Jose Sharks evened their pre-season record at 1-1..
The Sharks exploded for four goals in the third period to defeat the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 at HP Pavilion.
San Jose continues the seven-game pre-season campaign Saturday at 7:30pm against the visiting Vancouver Canucks.
“The battles in the corners that we won led to the shooting from the point,” said McLellan. “The forwards did a good job down low in going to the net. The D-men wanted to shoot the puck, which was nice to see. They did a good job of getting it to the net and we did a good job finding rebounds.
The Ducks turned back the Sharks 6-4 in Wednesday’s game in Anaheim. The Ducks will also open the regular season for San Jose on Thursday Oct. 9 at HP Pavilion.
The teams battled to a 1-1 after one period, then played scoreless hockey the second period.
San Jose turned the first of eight power play opportunities into a 1-0 lead 3:56 into action.
Defenseman Jason Demers’ hard shot from the top of the right circle bounced off the pads of Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller and into the slot for the put-back backhander by Joe Pavelski.
The Ducks mustered just three shots in the first period, yet found themselves even when Andrew Ebbett tapped in a rebound of a Corey Perry shot from the left flank with one second left on a Duck power play.
San Jose needed 33 seconds of the third period to regain the lead at 2-1. Pavelski was pushed into the net by Anaheim defenseman Steve Montador as the puck was sent through the slot. Defenseman Dan Boyle reacted to the loose puck with a shot into the open net from 15 feet out.
“I thought the play was going to be blown dead,” said Boyle. “It was close.”
Rookie defenseman Mike Moore made it 3-1 when he whipped home a shot from the high slot at the 5:29 mark. Defenseman Alexei Semenov took advantage of a screen by Tomas Plihal at the crease to send a long shot into the high left corner of the net for the 4-1 edge at 6:42.
Jamie McGinn completed San Jose’s scoring by setting up at the edge of the crease and one-timing Jonathan Cheechoo’s pass into a stuff shot at 12:21.
Anaheim’s George Parros beat goalie Evgeni Nabokov off a rebound at 14:50 to leave it 5-2.
