SAN JOSE
– Joe Thornton netted four points in the first period Tuesday to
spark the streaking San Jose Sharks past the Toronto Maple Leafs
5-2 at sold-out HP Pavilion.
SAN JOSE – Joe Thornton netted four points in the first period Tuesday to spark the streaking San Jose Sharks past the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 at sold-out HP Pavilion.
Thornton played in his 247th consecutive game for the Sharks, tying Vincent Damphousse for the San Jose franchise record. Sunday was the third anniversary of the trade that brought Thornton to San Jose from Boston for Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau.
San Jose’s eighth consecutive win is tops in the NHL this season. The Sharks, 21-3-1, also forged a seven-game winning streak this year. San Jose tied the NHL record set by Montreal in 1943-4 with 43 points in the team’s first 25 games.
Toronto coach Ron Wilson was back at HP Pavilion for the first time since he was let go by the Sharks after coaching the club from the 26th game of 2002-3 to the end of the playoff run last May. Under Wilson, San Jose was the only team to have won a playoff round in each of the past four years.
Thornton began the night tied for 16th in the NHL scoring race. The first-period effort pushed Thornton into the top 10 with 30 points (7 goals, 23 assists).
Devin Setoguchi opened the scoring with a backhander from 10 feet out near the bottom of the left face-off circle at 1:15 of play. Setoguchi’s effort skimmed off the leg pad of goalie Vesa Toskala and into the net. Thornton and Rob Blake were awarded assists.
The Sharks made it 2-0 with 6:35 gone in the period. Joe Pavelski’s hard shot from the top of the slot resulted in the puck bounding off the endboards, then atop the net before dropping into the crease. Thornton powered into the blue ice to jab the puck between Toskala’s legs.
“The puck took a lucky bounce,” said Thornton. “I just took a whack at it.”
Thornton earned the secondary assist on Dan Boyle’s ninth goal of the season at the 15:59 mark.
Patrick Marleau keyed the scoring play when he controlled the puck at the right point, patiently waiting for Boyle to find some room at the high slot. Boyle received Marleau’s pass and snapped a shot by Toskala.
The Sharks had a 4-0 lead 68 seconds later. Thornton sent a no-look backhander across the crease to a waiting Marc-Edouard Vlasic for the goal at the 17:07 mark.
“I threw it over and hoped someone would get it,” said Thornton.
“The first period was tremendous,” said San Jose coach Todd McLellan.
“We had a lot of jump, won a lot of puck battles.”
Toronto produced a 12-6 edge in shots on net in the second period and scored the session’s lone goal.
San Jose failed to clear the puck nine minutes into the period and the Leafs made the miscue pay. Toronto ended goalie Evgeni Nabokov’s shut-out bid at 9:10 when Nikolai Kulemin pounced on a blocked Leaf shot and wired a 15-footer into the net from the right flank.
San Jose regained the four-goal edge when Joe Pavelski scored a short-handed goal four minutes into the third period. Toronto’s Niklas Hagman deposited a rebound past Nabokov with 33.1 seconds left to complete the scoring.
The second game of the five-game homestand for the Sharks involves the Columbus Blue Jackets Thursday night.
