by Jerry Feitelberg

Sharks fly by the Flyers

The San Jose Sharks returned to play in the NHL Thursday night after a twenty day layoff due to the Olympics.The Sharks had four Olympians returning from Sochi. Two of them, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Patrick Marleau, came home with Gold. Sharks goalie, Antti Niemi, returned with a Bronze medal as his Finnish team finished third in the tournament.

The Sharks used the time off to get key players back on the ice. Logan couture missed sixteen games with a hand injury while teammate Raffi Torres was on the ice for the first time this year. Torres sustained a knee injury in the pre-season.sAdam Burish and Tyler Kennedy were also back from injuries.

The Sharks started a three game road trip with a win in Philadelphia by a score of 7-3. The Sharks

had to be elated when Raffi Torres scored the first goal of the night in his first game back. Jason Demers and Mike Brown picked up assists on the play. The goal came with just 4:35 played in the period. The Flyers took command of play and dominated the rest of the period. They tied the score at one when Andre Mezaros beat Alex Stalock for the score. Stalock blocked a shot but was way out in front of the net and Mezaros flicked it in to tie the game. Philadelphia struck again just twenty-two seconds later. Brayden Schenn scored his sixteenth goal of the year and the Flyers took a 2-1 lead.

The Sharks did not get a shot on goal in the last eleven minutes of the period and the Flyers outshot the Sharks 10-5.

The second period was a whole different story. The Sharks scored five time to take a 6-2 lead.

Joe Pavelski scored three goals and notched his second hat trick of the year. Logan Couture and Raffi Torres also scored. The Flyers pulled goalie Steve Mason after Couture’s goal and replaced him with Ray Emery. Emery didn’t do well at all as he got beat by Pavelski and Torres.

In the third period, Logan Couture scored his second goal of the night when he scored while the Sharks were shorthanded. It was Couture’s sixteenth tally of the year and the assist went to Tommy Wingels.

Later in the period, it appeared that Couture scored again, while shorthanded, but the goal was not allowed. It looked like the puck barely went over the goal line but , for some unknown reason, the refs ruled that it was not a good goal. The Flyers changed goalies again. Mason went back in replacing Emery. The Flyers made it a 7-3 game on a Matt Read goal but it was too little,too late as the Sharks win and now have 82 points with twenty-two games left to play. The Sharks trail the Anaheim Ducks

by 5 points in the race for the division crown.

After the game, Joe Pavelski said that “he felt pretty good out there” and that the “ice felt pretty small” as he made reference to the wider rink that was used at Sochi. He also said that “we want to catch Anaheim” and that we “will take care of business” the rest of the way. Pavelski also said that “it was fun to see Raffi score” the two goals in the game.

Logan Couture commented on the gaol that was disallowed saying “I saw a goal and it was over the line.”

The Sharks avenged an earlier loss to the Flyers at San Jose and evened the season series at one apiece. The Sharks head on to Buffalo to play the Sabres in game two of the three game road trip and finish up against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.