(Photo: Sergei Belski, USA TODAY Sports)
By Pearl Allison Lo
~ In the race to the regulation finish line, San Jose worked their way past a quick Calgary Flames comeback, in a 5-4 win Monday.
The two point lead, in a tight Pacific division battle, seemed destined, as the Sharks leapfrogged over the Flames to fourth place, keeping pace with the third-place Vancouver Canucks.
San Jose had a two goal lead three times in the game.
All of the three goals in the first were pretty evenly spaced apart.
The Sharks started where they left off, outscoring their opponent 9-0 in the last two games before they retaliated.
Joe Thornton got the takeaway and the goal as he exchanged passes with Joe Pavelski in between. He scored far side at 5:07.
San Jose would have had a power play but instead, Joonas Donskoi made it 2-0 when Chris Tierney passed the puck cross ice to Brendon Dillon at the blue line. At 9:27, Donskoi then tipped in Dillon’s shot.
Things intensified before Calgary’s goal. Two of Mikael Backlund’s attempts were saved and the Flames had a 2-on-1 shot blocked. Right after the latter, on the other end, the Flames scored. There was a rebound off Johnny Gaudreau’s shot. Micheal Ferland got the puck and Sean Monahan put it through the net at 13:45, after the Sharks were looking around.
San Jose reasserted their two goal lead, when Logan Couture began the second with his first goal of the season at 1:53.
Things remained in the Sharks’ favor until the second half of a double minor to Mike Brown, after he drew blood with a high stick.
Brent Burns was called for tripping, setting up a Calgary 5-on-3.
Within fifteen seconds, the Flames tied the game with back-to-back goals on back-to-back shots.
Dennis Wideman was aided by Gaudreau and Mark Giordano at 11:12. Giordano now has a five game point streak.
Sam Bennett was helped by Backlund and TJ Brodie.
In the third, San Jose’s Justin Braun got hit twice, the second time in the visor when he was already down, and had to leave the game. Couture said after the game, ““It’s scary anytime you see that much blood coming out that quick.”
The Sharks managed not to lose steam and went back up with a power play goal at 5:12. Burns scored just over 30 seconds in, assisted by Patrick Marleau and Thornton. Burns now has a seven game point streak. Marleau played in his 500th straight game.
Joel Ward then scored the game winner, as his pass turned into a goal. The assist went to Burns. Ward also had the game winner in the first of the season matchup between the teams.
Braun came back into the game.
Dillon was called for a penalty at 15:42 and Calgary pulled goalie Karri Ramo. It paid off, as the Flames pulled to within one. Ferland was aided by Backland and Dougie Hamilton.
Game notes: San Jose ended up outshot 35-18, outhit 22-9 and lost faceoffs by a 44-29 margin. The Sharks’ Tommy Wingels, who had a collision with Donskoi, left and came back during the first and then remained out. He is questionable with an upper body injury, for the 5pm matchup against the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday.
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