SAN JOSE
– Home ice continues to serve the San Jose Sharks well. Tuesday
night’s showdown with Eastern Conference powerhouse Pittsburgh was
further evidence as San Jose skated past the Penguins 2-1 at
sold-out HP Pavilion.
SAN JOSE – Home ice continues to serve the San Jose Sharks well. Tuesday night’s showdown with Eastern Conference powerhouse Pittsburgh was further evidence as San Jose skated past the Penguins 2-1 at sold-out HP Pavilion.
Now 5-0-0 in San Jose, the Sharks took over first place in the Western Conference with 16 points (8-2-0) after 10 games.
San Jose set a franchise record for fewest shots allowed by limiting the Penguins to 11 shots. The previous Sharks mark was 12 shots from Dallas in a 3-1 Stars victory on Nov. 7, 2007.
“I’m just proud of the way the guys played defensively,” said San Jose coach Todd McLellan.
The first-year coach opened play with his top line of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Devin Setoguchi against Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby line.
“Our guys needed to rise to the challenge and I thought they did a good job,” said McLellan. “Then, Joe Pavelski’s group did a good job against them.”
While Pittsburgh had several good scoring chances go bad in the first period, San Jose turned its only short-handed situation into a 1-0 lead.
Rob Blake earned a minor penalty for tripping 9:48 into action to give Pittsburgh a power play. The Sharks needed only 24 seconds to open the scoring.
Pavelski pestered Pittsburgh’s Alex Goligoski as the rookie defenseman tried to control the puck at the sideboards of the Penguin blueline. Pavelski swept his stick around Goligoski and tapped the puck into the Pittsburgh zone as linemate Milan Michalek arrived. Michalek had a breakaway at goalie Dany Sabourin. The netminder stopped the initial shot, but left a rebound in the crease that Pavelski reached to stuff home at the 10:12 mark.
“Milan showed his great speed from the blueline for the breakaway,” said Pavelski.
San Jose turnovers in the defensive zone gave the visitors several strong scoring opportunities in the first 20 minutes. At the 8:50 mark, San Jose defenseman Douglas Murray sent a blind backhanded pass through the slot that Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin intercepted. The winger’s unmolested shot from 15 feet out skimmed just outside of the left post, leaving the game scoreless.
Marleau was not given a point on the Sharks’ second goal at 12:52 of the third period. The captain did set up the scoring play, however, by racing with the puck into the Pittsburgh zone before wristing a pass to the right boards to Dan Boyle. Boyle found Christian Ehrhoff, who found Mike Grier available in the low slot to pull a backhander past Sabourin.
“Patty made a good play, carrying it in with a lot of speed,” said Grier of the set-up for his first goal of the season.
Pittsburgh ended a five-period shut-out mark by the San Jose defense by solving Evgeni Nabokov for a goal from Ruslan Fedotenko at the 14:27 mark.
“Nabby, for 11 shots, still made some real good saves,” added McLellan.
NOTES: Jamie McGinn made his NHL debut Tuesday after being called up from the Sharks affiliate in Worcester of the AHL. He finished with seven shifts…San Jose concludes the two-game homestand with a game against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings Thursday night…Pittsburgh was 0-for-12 in power plays on the road entering play Tuesday, then went 0-for-2 against the Sharks.
