SAN JOSE
– Seven games remain in the regular season as the San Jose
Sharks continue to threaten to earn the Presidents’ Trophy and with
it the Western Conference first-place seed for next month’s start
of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
SAN JOSE – Seven games remain in the regular season as the San Jose Sharks continue to threaten to earn the Presidents’ Trophy and with it the Western Conference first-place seed for next month’s start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Joe Pavelski scored a power play goal 1:34 into the third period to snap a 2-2 tie and carry the Sharks past the Phoenix Coyotes 3-2 at sold-out HP Pavilion.
“It’s going to be a battle right to the end,” Pavelski said before the team prepared for a two-game roadtrip beginning Monday in Calgary.
After the teams played a scoreless first period, both scored twice in the second period. Pavelski capped the scoring when he turned Christian Ehrhoff’s soft feed from the left boards into a 15-footer over the left shoulder of Coyote goalie Ilja Bryzgalov. Matthew Lombardi earned a tripping call against Shark Brad Lukowich at 1:13 of the period to give San Jose its third power play opportunity of the night.
The “workers played a very good game for us,” coach Todd McLellan said of Tom Cavanagh and Jody Shelley.
Kurt Sauer gave the Coyotes a brief 1-0 lead by scoring his first goal of the season, fifth in 349 NHL games, at 2:18 of the second period.
Shelley came up with the equalizer at 3:16, pouncing on a loose puck in the Phoenix zone and sending a hard shot between the pads of Bryzgalov from the high slot. Shelly has two goals this season, 14 for a career.
Cavanagh netted his first NHL goal in 17 games when he scored from close range at 5:20.
“If you are the middle guy on a 3-on-2, you go to the net,” said Cavanagh. “We practice that play a lot. I was able to chip it over the goalie.” Devin Setoguchi brought the puck into the Phoenix zone before headmanning the pass to Cavanagh at the left edge of the crease.
Lombardi made it a 2-2 game 6:30 into the second off a feed from defenseman Zbynek Michalek.
Pavelski’s 23rd goal of the year lifted San Jose to 109 points, two ahead of Detroit. Boston paces the Eastern Conference with 104 points.
Captain Patrick Marleau did not play after a shift early in the second period. The lower body injury was being evaluated after the game and the coach considered Marleau “day-to-day.”
San Jose will play in Edmonton Thursday before playing a weekend series with Anaheim, Saturday in San Jose and Sunday on the Ducks’ ice.
