By: Phillip Torres

SAN JOSE-The San Jose Sharks (35-15-6) defeated the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks (33-10-14) 2-1 in a shootout at the SAP Center in San Jose on Saturday night. Another sellout crowd at SAP witnessed a tough physical battle against the defending champions. There was no score until the third period.

The first two period of the contest was a defensive struggle as both teams remained scoreless. The game was a tough physical contest with hard hits coming from both respective teams. Both teams had there chances to score but could not come up with a goal to take an early advantage.

The first score of the game came from the Sharks’ Joe Pavelski, his 29th goal of the season. Scott Hannan assisted on the score. Pavelski’s goal came at 6:10 in the period as he broke away on a short handed goal to take the 1-0 advantage.

It came as no surprise that Chicago didn’t take long to tie up the game as Brandon Saad scored past Antti Niemi 1:03 later to tie the game at one. Kris Versteeg and Marian Hossa assisted on the game tying goal.

After a scoreless five minute overtime period, the game went into a sudden death shootout. The Sharks converted all three shootout opportunities against Chicago’s one to take the 2-1 victory. Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, and Joe Thornton scored in the shootout.

The Sharks will be back on the ice on Monday as they will host the Philadelphia Flyers. The puck will drop at 7:30 PM.