By Barbara Mason

Super goalie San Jose’s Martin Jones started tonight as the team took on the Ottawa Senators looking to extend their winning streak to three.   Jones is second in the NHL in ice time and doesn’t seem to be suffering in any way from the work load. Currently in first place the team wants to start a little better than they have the past few games.  Defense is winning games for San Jose right now and they need their offense to start to contribute early.  Losing to the Senators earlier this season, San Jose was looking to repay Ottawa big-time.  A fast offensive start is what the Sharks were looking for in this game.

Prior to the start the Senators Chris Neil celebrated his 1000 games, a remarkable feat for any hockey athlete, a real mile-stone.

The Sharks opened the game with an interference penalty and successfully killed the power play.  Minutes later the Senators were called for interference giving San Jose a power play opportunity.  Seconds after the power play ended Joe Pavelski scored his 10th goal of the season assisted by Logan Couture and Joe Thornton to take the 1-0 lead.  Ottawa came right back to tie the game when Bobby Ryan scored his first goal since late October. The period would come to an end tied at one.  Ottawa had shot 21 to the Sharks 15 shots on goal

Mid-way through the second period Brent Burns assisted by Brenden Dillon scored his 13th goal of the season to take back the lead 2-1.  At 17:27 the Senators would tie the game back up off the stick of Kyle Turris scoring his 12th goal of the season.  This game had all the makings of a very physical third period.

A cheap shot by Ottawa’s Mike Hoffman on Logan Couture gave the Sharks a five minute power play.  Couture headed to the locker room for further evaluation.  When it looked like the Sharks had taken the lead, a review showed that Pavelski was offsides and the goal was waived off.  After killing the five minutes, the Senators took the lead for the first time in the game on a power play goal by Dion Phaneuf for the 3-2 lead.  One minute later Chris Tierney scored his  3rd goal of the season to tie the game and sent this game into overtime.

The overtime was a very fast and physical affair.  At 56 seconds left the Sharks had a power play but was  unable to score. This game would see a shoot-out.

In round 4 it was Kevin Labanc to the rescue finding the net and winning the game for two precious points.  While Labanc was the hero, I feel there were actually two heroes.  Goalie Martin Jones was 7 of 7 in the shoot out last night and this game.  He was perfect.  “It was exciting right to the end.  You have to be positive on the bench,” said Labanc after the game.  “We knew we had to buckle down and play hard,” he said playing in only his 17th game.

The Sharks will be back on the ice Friday taking on the Canadiens.  The puck drops at 4:30.