Month: December 2013

Bears, Solomon too big for Fresno State

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By Morris Phillips

You’d be wise to bring size when facing the California Golden Bears.

Another undersized opponent came to Haas Pavilion on Saturday, and the Bears stepped all over Fresno State in a 67-56 victory.  The Bulldogs found themselves looking up from the start, missing 12 of their first 13 shots and getting out-rebounded 47-34.

The Bulldogs have just one player taller than 6’7” in their rotation—6’9” Alex Davis—and that lack of size and bulk opened the door for Cal’s Richard Solomon, who led the Bears with 17 points and 14 rebounds.

“I knew that they weren’t as big down low in the post, so coach wanted us to go down to me and David and just see if we could take advantage of that,” Solomon said.  “I think that the biggest thing, when I catch the ball down low I’m not just looking to score.  I’m looking to make the right play.”

Cal and Solomon enjoyed a healthy size advantage against Nevada—their previous opponent—and the Bears responded with their highest point total in more than a year.  This time, the size advantage didn’t show in the score as both teams struggled throughout with their shooting.    But the Bears had their way defensively, as the Bulldogs’ shot just 33 percent for the game.

“Defensively, I thought we did a really nice job holding them to 32 percent from the floor and 25 percent from three,” Cal Coach Mike Montgomery said.   “Maybe our best defense came from the free throw line; we held them to fifty percent.  We defended the heck out of that free throw line.”

Montgomery found himself in a joking mood after the game as usual.  But this one was anything but ordinary as the long-time coach won for the 665th time at the Division I level allowing Montgomery to surpass John Wooden for sole possession of ninth place on the list for career wins.  117 of Montgomery’s wins have come during the last five seasons at Cal.

Ironically, the size advantage the Bears enjoyed this week might disappear during the Pac-12 league schedule where Cal will face big guys like Arizona State’s Jordan Bachyniski, UCLA’s Wear twins, USC’s 7’2” Omar Oraby and Arizona’s Kaleb Tarczewski.  But the non-conference is another story, and the Cal’s size advantage allowed Solomon and 6’9” David Kravish to both register double-digit rebounds for only the second time this season.

The numerous missed shots and lack of rebounding by Fresno State allowed the Bears to build a double-digit lead 12 minutes into the game.  But with 2:38 remaining, the Bulldogs sliced Cal’s lead to seven, 58-51, only to fumble a loose ball out of bounds with Davis and Paul Watson of Fresno the only players in the vicinity. 

“That was the game right there,” Fresno State Coach Rodney Terry said.  “They won the 50-50 battle, as much as I hate to say that, because we work on trying to win and we pride ourselves on winning those 50-50 battles in terms of loose balls.”

Montgomery tweaked his starting lineup once again, with freshmen Jordan Mathews pulled in favor of sophomore Tyrone Wallace.   The changes made Cal more savvy defensively with Ricky Kreklow playing small forward and adding 11 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

The Bears get their final pre-season tuneup next Saturday against Creighton.

Morris Phillips on the NCAA

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by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears are getting confidence with these non conference games wins like the one Saturday against the Fresno State Bull Dogs 67-56 in an 11 point victory and it’s an opportunity to gain confidence with a young basketball team which is great. The Bears have got new players that haven’t had expereince at the division one level and that’s why home games or pre conference games are so critical so that will help them.

The Bears didn’t see anybody of size this week and obviously when the conference games start they will be seeing bigger teams and taller players and the Bears will have to contend with those teams. At that point Cal will be the smaller team of the group. Especially they played Nevada and Fresno State on Saturday at Haas Pavilion and they saw a pair of undersize teams and that won’t be the case in the Pac 12.

The one thing that’s going on right now for the first time since 2006 the number one team in the country is from the Pac 12 Arizona who won against Michigan to secure that number one spot and the Pac 12 looks to be as balanced and competitive as it has been in years top to bottom and their already getting raves for being one of the strong leagues in the country.

Once again Cal is not in a conference schedule there is nothing compared to what they will see once the conference season starts. Just to run through the team, Arizona is number one, Oregon is ranked, Washington State looks to be much improved, Washington as like Cal a younger team trying to find it’s way.

Stanford is kind of interesting they just lost their point guard Aaron Bright for the season the Pac 12 is going to be a bear and every week it’s going to be tough ball games that are going to be very closely contested. Cal is going to be right there in the mix. They are younger and less experienced than some of the teams that they will face.

Morris Phillips covers Cal basketball and is filling in for Dr.Michelle Richardson this week for the NCAA commentary

SF Bulls Make 4 Goal Comeback Against Stockton Thunder

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By Mary Walsh

SAN FRANCISCO- Saturday, the San Francisco Bulls came back from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Stockton Thunder in a shootout. It was the third meeting of the season for the two teams. The first period ended tied at one, the second period ended 4-2. The teams went to a shootout tied at five goals apiece. Two of the Bulls’ goals were scored by Steven Tarasuk, his first two goals of the season. Also, there were teddy bears, lots of teddy bears tossed on the ice.

After the game, Head Coach Pat Curcio said:

From the beginning of the game tonight, we were much better than last night. I think our fans had a lot to do with it, it just gives our guys so much more energy and life out there. I thought in the second period, a couple of the mistakes that we made, it [was] unfair for us to be down 3-1. Obviously Scott Langdon got us on the board there, gave us some life and the guys just thought “if they scored three that quick, we can score three that quick.”

The game was a lot like the last game San Francisco played against Stockton: San Francisco was outshot, they fell behind by three goals, they pulled J.P. Anderson out and put Tyler Beskorowany in net mid-second period. The games were just alike, apart from four San Francisco goals scored in the second half of the game, three by defensemen.

Three and a half minutes of the first period went by before either team got a shot on goal, and then it was San Francisco’s shot. Stockton answered back quickly with two of their own, and then play was interrupted by a hit from Adrian Foster that left a Stockton player down for several seconds. A boarding call put the Bulls on the penalty kill. Stockton had two more shots on the power play but the Bulls’ penalty kill kept the game scoreless.

After 9:50, the Bulls still only had one shot on goal. This wasn’t an accurate reflection of zone time or scoring chances, which looked more even.

The Bulls also took the second penalty of the game, again to Foster, this time for high-sticking. At 14:03 of the first, Stockton scored on their eighth shot, a power play goal by Joey Martin from Corey Trevino and Matt Berglund.

At 13:29 of the period, Tyler Gron tied it up when three Bulls got the jump on the Stockton defense. The teddy bears flew, a significant improvement over last year’s teddy bear toss, when the Bulls didn’t score until the third period.

With 2:50 left in the period, Stockton’s Ryan Constant was called for cross-checking Dale Mitchell. The power play started out well enough, with a series of good chances during a long shift for San Francisco. The Bulls finally lost control of the puck and Stockton kept them from setting up again in the last few seconds of the penalty.

The period ended tied at one, with shots 10-8 for San Francisco.

During that first intermission, the Bulls thanked one of their most loyal fans, Misty. She will be moving to Florida this month and the Bulls aren’t likely to travel there often. The Bulls played a thank you message on the video cube.

The second period started quietly enough. With nearly four minutes gone in the period, Dale Mitchell and Stockton’s Mike Dalhuisen were called for roughing, putting the teams four on four. Neither team scored then, but at 6:31 of the period, Stockton’s Andrew Clark did, with a shot from the faceoff circle that beat Anderson on the far side. Assists went to Greg Miller and Garet Hunt. 33 seconds later, Stockton scored again. Goal by Alex MacLeod, unassisted.

In the next minute, the Bulls got a power play out of an interference penalty called on Larson. As the penalty expired, Stockton went the other way to put the puck in the net for the fourth time. James Henry’s shot got by Anderson but the goal was called off for goaltender interference.

The Thunder had to try again for that fourth goal a few minutes later, which Clark scored with another shot from the faceoff circle, beating Anderson on the far side. In both cases, Anderson had a player in front of him, but that was still four goals too many. Bulls Coach Pat Curcio replaced Anderson with Beskorowany.

A couple of minutes later, Scott Langdon scored his third of the season to make it 4-2. Assists went to Mitchell and Ouellet.

The period ended 4-2, with shots at 25-18, Stockton leading on both counts.

The first few minutes of the third dragged a bit, but at 3:57, Brett Findlay skated straight up the slot in the Thunders’ zone and shot the puck past Phillips to make it a one goal game. Assists went to Jordan Morrison and Steven Tarasuk.

Play picked up then, the teams trading aggressive forechecks, the goalies getting some work. Finally, Dylan King sent the puck along the blue line from one point to the other, where Tarasuk was waiting to slap it to the net. It made it through with help from a screen set by Chris Crane and Magomed Gimbatov. Assists went to Gimbatov and King.

The Bulls earned another power play with just under eight minutes left: a boarding call against James Henry. Half way through the power play, the Bulls gave up a short-handed chance but regrouped in time to go the other way again. A shot from the point gave the Bulls their first lead of the game. It was Tarasuk’s second goal of the game and the season. It was only the Bulls’ tenth shot of the period, and their third goal. Assists went to Kalvin Sagert and Gimbatov.

With under three minutes to go, Stockton tied it again and the game went to overtime tied 5-5. The goal was Mike Dalhuisen’s, with an assist from Clark.

A fast overtime period flew by without many whistles or breaks in play. The shootout went five rounds, with Dean Ouellet and Brett Findlay scoring for San Francisco and Joey Martin scoring for Stockton. Final score: 6-5 San Francisco.

For full game stats, visit the ECHL website.

Roster notes:

The last time the Bulls met the Thunder, Stockton won 5-1. Since then, the Bulls have lost Mark Lee to injury, but regained Dale Mitchell and acquired Tyler Gron. That isn’t unusual in the ECHL: roster turnover is pretty high, especially since they have to contend with a roster limit and salary cap.

Nonetheless, it is worth pausing to consider how many players have come or gone from the Bulls’ lineup since November 20. Kyle Bodie, Josh Kidd, Damon Kipp, Riley Emmerson and Rob Linsmayer had been traded away or gone to China. In their places, the Bulls acquired Kalvin Sagert, Adrian Foster, Magomed Gimbatov, and Berkley Scott. In short, the team has replaced almost one third of the roster. Half of the Bulls who scored against Stockton are not playing: Lee and Linsmayer. Worth noting, Tyler Gron did score against the Thunder this season, as a member of the Idaho Steelheads, on November 24.

For Stockton’s part, two players arrived December 11 from the AHL: defenseman Mike Dalhuisen and left wing Nick Larson. Dalhuisen played seven games with the Thunder this season, this was Larson’s first game in the ECHL.

Michael Duca on Cal basketball

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–What you want to do is construct a schedule that challenges your team and give it the opportunity to give it different kinds of looks. What a way for Cal (8-3) to rack up a win over the Fresno State Bull Dogs (6-5) an 11 point victory on Saturday night at Haas with a 67-56 victory. It’s silly the way you can beat non-conference teams like this but this is the way you get into the NCAA Tournament.

 

Getting there you need to play North Carolina, Duke, Michigan in the pre season and it really doesn’t matter who else you play you can play 11, 12, 13 non conference games and you want to make sure you win most of them and you want to be sure your team is challenged a little bit in the process. 8-0 at home is good, they lost three away from home not so good but that’s how Cal constructs their pre conference schedule so that their almost entirely at home.

 

The interesting thing is a lot people are wondering how Cal would be this year without Allen Crabbe, without a two time Pac 12 player, who was a good shooter, a good scorer who left early for the NBA and is intimately acquainted with the bench up in Portland now. The answer is their doing just fine the Bears are not relying on just one guy to score for them now their spreading that scoring all around.

 

The Bears had six players in double figures earlier this week against Nevada and three of those players came off the bench. You like to have an eight man rotation that has eight guys that can score in double figures and so Saturday night against the Bull Dogs the Bears spread the scoring around quite as thickly but you did have two guys with double figures in rebounds from Richard Solomon and David Kravish both.

 

One night Justin Cobbs comes and gets you 25 points and the next night he gets eight or nine assists so Cobb can find different ways to adjust his game to what needs to be done on the floor. The conference games will be starting soon enough and there are a lot of very good teams in the Pac 12 this year. Washington is always a tough team for Cal, Oregon is a nationally ranked team, UCLA is a nationally ranked team Arizona is a top ranked team.

 

You have just a variety of squads in the Pac 12 that could give anybody fits on any given night and Cal is always going to struggle when they go to places like Utah or Colorado because of the altitude. It’s going to be a very competitive conference, it will not surprise me Cal in the top second tier after Arizona and UCLA who will be right up there with Oregon.

 

The Cal Bears Tyrone Wallace you look at him on the floor and you think he’s a tweener and it’s the same position that former Bear Patrick Christopher used to play he has the scoring ability to rebound like a power forward with Kravish and Solomon and with that many rebounds to be gathered in right around the bucket and paint he is one of those guys like Kravish was a couple of years ago who has a nose for the ball. I don’t know if Wallace studies and scouts down the other team but he’s got a playbook in his mind where to go on the floor.

 

Michael Duca covers the Cal Bears for Sportstalk Radio each week

Sharks Rally Comes Up Short, Lose 3-2 To Predators

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NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 14: Antti Niemi #31 of the San Jose Sharks watches the replay of a goal against him by Viktor Stalberg #25 of the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on December 14, 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN – DECEMBER 14: Antti Niemi #31 of the San Jose Sharks watches the replay of a goal against him by Viktor Stalberg #25 of the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on December 14, 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Kahlil Najar

NASHVILLE -The red hot Nashville Predators (16-14-3) wont their third straight game and beat the San Jose Sharks (20-7-6), 3-2. San Jose is now 1-4-1 in their last six games and have only scored 11 goals. Dan Boyle scored his sixth goal of the year and Antti Niemi stopped 20 of 23 for his fifth loss of the year.

“We weren’t nearly aggressive enough,” said San Jose coach Todd McLellan. “It’s amazing, in the third when we played on the inside a little bit more, we got more second chances, kept the forecheck alive, we were a much different team. I’m a bit disappointed in the first period and a half to two periods.”

Nashville defenseman Victor Bartley got the Predators on the board at 16:01 of the first period when he shot a wicked wrister at the net from just above the left circle and beat Niemi. The Predators connected on their first power play of the night after when Nick Spaling won the puck along the boards and got it over to Craig Smith behind the net. Smith found defenseman Roman Josi streaking in and Josi’s wrist shot beat Antti Niemi to the glove side to give Nashville the 2-0 lead.

The Sharks finally got in the scoring column in the third when Sharks center Patrick Marleau won the puck behind the net and found Matt Irwin high in the slot. Dan Boyle deflected Irwin’s shot between Hutton’s legs and made it 2-1.  The Predators Viktor Stalberg made it 3-1 with 2:39 left when he beat Niemi low to the glove side on a 2-on-1 breakaway.  The Sharks pulled Niemi and with the extra man, Markeau redirected a pass from Dan Boyle and got it past Hutton with 54.6 seconds left and brought it to a final score of 3-2.

“Every game we play it seems the team that wins the special teams play, wins the game,” San Jose’s Joe Thornton said. “Tonight they got the one power-play goal and we didn’t, and that’s basically what the NHL comes down to right now, who is better on special teams.”

Logan Couture echoed, “We have to be better on the road. We know how big points are right now. It’s a tough loss.”

The Sharks hope to get back in the win column when they head to St. Louis for an evening game this Tuesday at 8PM EST.

Cardinal Keeps Bulldogs on Leash

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stanford womens bb

By Joe Lami

The Stanford Cardinal returned to the court on Saturday, after a two-week long hiatus for finals.  They took on the number 23 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs, and defeated them by the score 73-45.

The Bulldogs came into the game with a record of 8-1, with their only loss coming to the 11 ranked Oklahoma Sooners by the final score of 82-78.  The Zags were also riding a six-game winning streak coming into Maples Pavilion.

The first couple of minutes were going back and forth with a score of 9-8 in favor of Stanford, until around the 15-minute mark Stanford started to pull away from the Bulldogs. Stanford had gone on a 24-8 run to end the half to make the lead 33-19.

Stanford continued the dominance in the second as well, outscoring their opponent 40-26, to give them the 73-45 win.

Stanford was lead by Senior, Chiney Ogwumike who scored 19 points, just one point shy of recording her seventh 20-point game.  However, she was held to only seven rebounds, a season low at home.  Amber Orrange had anther strong outing for the Cardinal scoring ten points and three assists.  Freshman, Kailee Johnson came off of the bench to score 11 points, a new career high. Johnson also led the Cardinal in rebounding with eight, another career high for her young career.

Sonja Greinacher led the Bulldogs in scoring with 18, all of them coming from the field.  Greinacher also had six rebounds, with five of them coming on the offensive side.  Elle Tinkle, younger sister of former Stanford player Joslyn, was held scoreless, but still had two rebounds.

With the win, Stanford ups their record to 8-1, seven of them have been consecutive.  The Cardinal return to Maples on Monday, where they will host the New Mexico Lobos.  Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be heard live in the Bay Area on Stanford radio, 90.1 FM KZSU, or online at kzsuive.stanford.edu.

 

 

Warriors Comeback Bid Falls Just Shy as Harden, Houston Best Dubs 116-112

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By Matthew Harrington

The Golden State Warriors comeback bid fell just short Friday night at Oracle Arena, as the Dubs fell to the Houston Rockets 116-112. The Rockets’ James Harden had a game-high 26 points while David Lee led Golden State with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

Houston (16-8) held a slim 30-29 lead after the first 12 minutes before rocketing off in the second quarter to a 58-51 halftime advantage. The visitors would add another two points to their lead after three-fourths of play for a 82-73 edge. The Warriors (13-11) outscored Houston 39-34 in the final frame but ran out of time to complete the comeback.

Andrew Bogut and Harrison Barnes also notched double-doubles for Golden State as Barnes had 20 points and game-high 12 rebounds while Bogut had 11 boards to go with 10 points on the night. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were a combined 2 of 12 from beyond the arc. Houston forward Chandler Parsons added 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting and Dwight Howard reeled in 11 rebounds. He was also an astonishing seven-for-seven from the charity stripe.

The Warriors have now dropped 18 of their last 22 games against Houston dating back to January 29, 2008. They will look to bounce back Sunday in Phoenix as they take on the Suns.

Kings Fall In PHX 116-107

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Image

Photo credit: Barry Gossage

By Charlie O. Mallonee

Three sets of numbers summarize the Kings versus the Suns game on Friday night – 49.4%, 50.0% and 57. The Suns shot 49.4% from the field and posted 50.0% from 3-point land. Phoenix guards Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe combined for 57 points.

The Phoenix Suns defeated the Sacramento Kings 116-107.

Why did the Kings lose the game? Head Coach Michael Malone says it was a lack of defense. In his post-game interview, Malone said, “I am embarrassed by our lack of defense right now.”

The Kings gave up 122 points to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night and gave up 116 to Phoenix. In the NBA, a team is not going to win many games giving up that many points.

Before the beginning of the season, Malone had set a goal of not allowing the opposition more than 20 points in a quarter. The Suns scored 28, 30, 27 and 31 by quarter against the Kings.

In spite of all the negative numbers, the Kings had a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter. The Kings trailed the Suns by just three points (87-84) at the 11:09 mark, but the play of Bledsoe and four fourth quarter dunks by Miles Plumlee kept Sacramento from making a comeback.

The Suns were led by Dragic with 29 points, Bledsoe’s 28 and Plumlee added 12 of his own. Dragic was four of five from beyond the 3-point line.

The lack of a true defensive effort overshadowed the debut of Rudy Gay in a Kings uniform. Gay scored 24 points in 36 minutes of playing time. He was eight for 12 from the floor (66.6%), eight for nine from the free throw line, had one assist, one steal, two blocks and one rebound. After the game Malone said he was happy with Gay’s debut except the one rebound. There will be rebounding drills tomorrow for the newest King.

Aaron Gray also made his Kings debut against the Suns. Gray scored seven points and pulled down nine rebounds in his 13 minutes on the floor. He also showed his ability to set some serious screens on offense.

Isaiah Thomas led the Kings with 29 points. DeMarcus Cousins put up 15 and Derrick Williams added 14 points.

The Kings will have to regroup quickly as they host the Houston Rockets on Sunday in Sacramento. A strong defensive effort will be needed if the Kings are to defeat Dwight Howard, James Harden and company.

Four unanswered goals by the Reign doom the Bulls, lose 4-1

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By Kahlil Najar

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Bulls (8-13-2-1) got on the board early but then surrendered four unanswered goals and lost to the first place Ontario Reign (16-3-1-3), 4-1. Dale Mitchell had the only goal for the Bulls in the first period and Tyler Beskorowany stopped 44 of 48 shots in the loss and is now at an even .500 record for the year. The Bulls are now 1-3-1-0 on the year against Reign and are 0-10 when scoring one goal or less.

Ontario hardly ran away with this game as they received 8 penalties in the game and gave the Bulls all the opportunities they needed to come back but were unsuccessful in each power play. The Bulls are ranked second to last on the power play at home in the league.

“I just thought the game was terrible from the drop of the puck. There was no flow because of all the penalties. We didn’t capitalize on our opportunities, it took a negative spin on us,” said head coach Pat Curcio.

Excluding the horrid power play for the Bulls, the play of goalie Beskorwany had to be a highlight for the Bulls. Bekso stopped 18 shots in the first period and turned away 44 shots in total.

“Our defense was terrible tonight and their passing was less than average. We weren’t sharp at all. I can’t say anyone was good tonight other than Besko. He made a lot of saves for us tonight and kept us in the game,” continued Curcio.

Dale Mitchell continued his great game play as he put the Bulls on the board first 5:23 into the first period as he tossed a puck in front of the goal that scooted past everyone and hit the boards behind the net and bounced all the way back onto his stick and he was able to beat the Reign’s Redmann and give the Bulls a 1-0 lead. Adrian Foster and Dean Ouellet received assists on the goal. The Reign kept Besko on his heels in the first as he faced 18 shots and turned them all away. The Bulls were only able to get 9 in on Redmann.

The second period started rough and turned out to the toughest period in the contest.  The Bulls gave up three unanswered goals and weren’t able to capitalize on six penalties to the Reign. A little over five minutes into the period and on a penalty kill, Ontario’s Eric Springer grabbed the puck at mid-ice and went storming in and took a shot that Beskso was able to stop but the rebound came out right in front to Towns who scored his third goal of the season and tied the game at one a piece. Six minutes later, on their second power play of the game (a boarding and fighting call on Dylan King) the Reign’s Jake Newton took a shot from the top of the face-off circle that was turned away by Besko but Brett Beebe was able to gather the rebound and hit the back of the net and give the Reign a 2-1 lead.

With under five minutes left in the second, Dean Ouellet and Scott Langdon received back-to-back penalties and gave the Reign their third power play of the night and on the 5-on-3 Mario Lamoureux (who wins for name closest to Mario Lemieux) scored on another rebound given up by Besko and gave the Reign a 3-1 lead after two.

On a nice fake that shook a Bulls defender off of him, the Reigns Cody Sol scored his first goal of the season and sealed the Ontario victory 4-1.

Curcio concluded, “We came off a high last weekend and had a couple days off and we didn’t come back sharp.”

The Bulls hope to turn it around tomorrow against the fifth place Stockton Thunder at 7:30pm.

Sharks power play sinks the Wild

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By Ivan Makarov

Sharks were looking for answers to the questions about their recent struggles after they lost four in the row. They found these answers on Thursday back at SAP Center against Minnesota Wild. The key to overcoming those struggles, as it turned out, was a great game from special teams.

Sharks power play shined against the Wild, and was credited with all the three goals of the night after going 3 for 6 on their attempts. On the other side of the ice, Sharks penalty kill was perfect, killing all three attempts they faced while stopping eighth power play unit in the league.

“I think we obviously found the work ethic on the power play,” said Joe Pavelski after the game where he scored two. “It certainly didn’t look pretty, but we’ve taken more shots, and got a lot more pucks back, and feel a lot better now.”

The game started well for the Sharks, like it often did this season ay home. With Wild taking penalties, Joe Pavelski scored a power play goal at 5:54 mark in the first period. After passing the puck along the boards, Dan Boyle found Pavelski with the pass at the top of the face off circle. Pavelski shot it Iow and it went into the goal after hitting one of the players in the crease and going between Niklas Backstrom’s pads.

Wild did not stop taking penalties in that period, and with their fourth penalty in that stretch of the game, they gave the Sharks 5-on-3 power play for 1:30. Sharks could not score with the two men advantage, but still had 30 second to play on one man advantage. It was at that time that Tomas Hertl put one into the net. The goal came as a result of a great individual play from Tommy Wingels who kept the puck from clearing, powered his way towards the net and passed it to Hertl who was wide open in the front.

Wild got into more penalty trouble in the second period. One of the key moments in game happened when Zenon Konopka was sent into the penalty box with a double minor for high sticking. Sharks scored again, with Joe Pavelski earning his second goal of the night, as he picked up the rebound neat the crease and put it past Nicklas Backstrom’s who was stretched out on the ice after making a save.

With the three goal lead, the Sharks put themselves into defensive mode, and their penalty kill had to work hard to protect the lead after Wild were awarded several power plays. None of them were as important as when Tomas Hertl was sent into the box, earning his first NHL penalty for a holding against Jonas Brodin. Wild were all over the Sharks in their zone, and with Brad Stuart breaking his stick, it looked a lot like 5-on-3 for a while. Sharks fought hard, and were able to stop the Wild from scoring, keeping their advantage to three goals. Hertl made a great play as well coming out of the box, as he chased after the puck, preventing an icing call on the play, and allowing his tired teammates to change.

“[That play by Hertl] was huge,” said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. “He comes out of the penalty box, we got the clear, both teams are exhausted, so to have them get the line change with us already having used our time out and having have to continue. That was a pretty big and important point.”

Minnesota Wild finally broke their scoring drought in the third period when Brodin scored in front of the net on a deflected shot that was taken by Justin Fontaine at 12:36 mark in the third period. But their effort came a little too late and the Sharks were able to defend their lead and win the game.

With the victory, the Sharks ended their 4-game losing streak, and no doubt added confidence in their special teams ability, which was not consistent in the last few weeks. They are next back in action on the three game road trip that starts on Saturday in Nashville, followed by games in St Louis and Los Angeles.