By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Thursday, March 17, 2016

AP photo: Coyotes Shane Doan (19) tries to outskate the Sharks Nick Spaling (16) with the puck, Doan ended up scoring the go ahead goal on Thursday night

GLENDALE, Arizona – If nothing else, it was a busy night for the video review judge Thursday at Gila River Arena.

Three times in the first two periods, a goal was challenged. The Arizona Coyotes won the first of those decisions, while the San Jose Sharks were 0-for-2.

In the end, it was Shane Doan, the Coyotes’ 39-year-old captain, who broke a 1-1 deadlock with another of his “ugly” goals. Doan’s go-ahead tally at 18:29 of the third period gave the Coyotes a 3-1 victory over a frustrated San Jose squad.

“I haven’t scored too many pretty ones this year,” Doan said of his 25th goal of the season and 393rd of his career. “It was one of those ones that just landed on (Jones’s) pad and fell in.

“(Teammate) Jordan Martinook is adamant that I’ve only scored 10 legit goals!” he added. “I don’t really care. Ask how many, not how.”

The win keeps the Coyotes’ slim playoff hopes alive, Arizona (31-32-7, 69 points) is fourth in the Pacific, seven points away from the second Wild Card.

San Jose (39-25-6, 84 points) hangs on to the No. 3 slot out of the NHL Pacific Division, one point over the Wild Card qualifiers. The Sharks had a two-game winning streak snapped following crucial victories over Washington and Boston.

On what appeared to be an attempted centering pass, Doan snuck a shot in from an extreme narrow angle, and the puck bounced and rolled past the glove side of Sharks goaltender Martin Jones at 18:29 of the third period.

Moments later, after the Sharks pulled Jones for a sixth attacker, the Coyotes’ Antione Vermette popped in an empty-net goal with :50 to play.

“Brownie (assistant coach Newell Brown) and I were talking at morning skate that I had to try slipping the puck to a battle in front with Brad (Richardson) and Max (Domi) and just create scrambles,” Doan said.

Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith, who recently returned from a 40-game absence to recover from a core muscle injury, stopped 27 of 28 shots, five days after making 44 saves in Arizona’s win over Edmonton.

It didn’t hurt Smith’s effort that two of San Jose’s goals were disallowed.

San Jose nearly had the first lead of the game with 7:25 left in the first period, when Dainius Zubrus took a pass in the slot, and sent a wrister past Smith on his stick side.
After a review, it was determined the play was offside and the goal was nullified.

Michael Stone gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at 13:23 when he teed up a pass from Tanguay at the right point and fired a slap shot through Martin Jones’s legs. In turn, San Jose challenged the play, claiming it was offside. Officials reviewed the play and ruled the goal was good.

The Sharks lost their second review of the game at 6:28 of the second period during a power play that followed a fight between Arizona’s Max Domi and San Jose’s Marcus-Edouard Vlasic which included an additional cross-checking minor to Domi.

Chris Tierney was cruising in as a trailer, sent a bouncing puck past Smith from just outside the crease. Arizona challenged the ruling, claiming the puck was kicked in, and won the review, nullifying the goal.

San Jose’s persistence paid off at 10:29 of the second period when the Sharks finally scored a goal that counted. Tomas Hertl, skating across the slot, knocked in the rebound off Paul Martin’s shot. Joe Thornton had the second assist on the Sharks’ equalizer.

“This is the NHL. Nobody should beat anybody,” Sharks Coach Peter DeBoer said. “These guys (Arizona) are still a quality team, they’re well coached and they’re going to win some games. They’re not going to lose every game down the stretch.

“They came out and played well enough to win some points tonight, and we didn’t. We’ll have to pick ourselves up and get ready for the next one.”

The Sharks return to San Jose for a six-game homestand, starting Saturday with the New York Rangers and a visit from the Coyotes on Sunday.

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