Photo credit: nhl.com/goldenknights
By Pearl Allison Lo
The San Jose Sharks became the one to suffer a 2018 Stanley Cup playoff loss first, as they were shut out 7-0 by the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 of the Western Conference second round at the T-Mobile Arena Thursday night.
Both teams were playing for the first time in over a week after they swept their previous opponents. It was a much more lopsided game than in the teams’ previous meetings and the Knights’ first win these playoffs by more than one goal.
Vegas scored four goals in the first period, the first two just 26 seconds apart to set up the win along with three more goals on three shots.
Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves on the defensive end. It was his third shutout this postseason and second straight shutout.
Sharks goalie Martin Jones was removed during the game and Evander Kane received a game misconduct for cross-checking Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in the face while staring at him face-to-face.
11 different Knights had points. Jonathan Marchessault had a goal and two assists, Erik Haula, Alex Tuck and James Neal each had a goal and assist, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith each had three assists and David Perron had two assists.
After San Jose held Vegas on an early power play, the Knights exerted their strength beginning at 4:31 until 6:02.
Cody Eakin and Haula scored their second of the playoffs and Marchessault his first.
The game continued to trend downward for the Sharks when they followed their power play opportunity at 6:49 with a penalty 37 seconds after the end.
48 seconds later, San Jose went down to three men with another infraction. Tuck capitalized, as he weaved his way through four defenders to make it 4-0 at 11:43.
The Sharks got their own 5-on-3 chance later, but were unable to find the net.
San Jose ended the period with a flurry of shots versus Fleury (17 during the period) and Vegas had 15 blocked shots.
Jones made two saves in the second, 14 seconds apart. However, Shea Theodore took Jones out of the game 40 seconds later, with the Knights’ fifth goal. Smith started the play by intercepting a pass at the other end. Theodore’s goal came at 3:28.
Neal nearly had Vegas’ sixth goal and second on the power play at the end of the period, but it was negated.
While there were already a number of penalties in the game, the atmosphere was not chippy until the penalties at 3:25 of the third. First, Sharks captain Joe Pavelski received a slashing call after he just came out of the box 17 seconds earlier for interference. The bigger concurrent penalty came to Kane for cross-checking Bellemare in the face twice, which was a game misconduct.
This resulted in the Knights’ second 5-on-3 advantage and Colin Miller made San Jose pay with his first career playoff goal at 4:32.
Neal then got his goal with Vegas’ second straight on the power play, a quick wraparound.
The Sharks’ shots were few at first in the closing period, the first coming with 17:13 (shorthanded), 10:50 and 8:24 left.
Game Notes: It was San Jose goalie Aaron Dell’s playoff debut. He made 19 saves off 21 shots and his counterpart Jones made eight saves off 13 shots. The Knights’ William Carrier had a game-high eight hits. The Sharks’ Logan Couture had a game-high six shots on goal. Bellemare had a game-high five blocked shots.
Up Next: Game 2 will reconvene in Vegas at 5 pm PT Saturday.
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