Photo credit: @PeteBlackburn
NHL Podcast with Daniel Dullum:
1 Without NHL players, Olympic tournament is wide open
2 NHL aware of backlash of having Kid Rock perform at All-Star Game
3 Golden Knights beat Lightning in Tampa, fastest expansion team to 30 wins
4 60 years ago, Willie O’Ree broke the NHL color barrier
Daniel Dullum does the NHL Podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports: The Colorado Avalanche’s Carl Soderberg take at the net on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center to score his 10th goal of the season against the visiting San Jose Sharks.
On the San Jose Sharks Podcast with Len:
Len Shapiro does the SJ Sharks podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
~ Photo credit: Colorado Avalanche
~ By Pearl Allison Lo
~ The San Jose Sharks came to within one from three goals down, but the Colorado Avalanche goalie Jonathan Bernier stymied power play attempts and what not to preserve a 5-3 win at Pepsi Center on Thursday.
San Jose made it 4-3 at 4:53 of the second and had two power plays after that, but former Shark Matt Nieto gave Colorado extra change at 16:46. Blake Comeau gathered the loose puck in the neutral zone, turned around along the boards and passed to Nieto. Nieto’s shot went in and off the post before Martin Jones’ right pad could get back.
With an empty net, San Jose got their seventh power play at 19:01, but ran out of time.
Bernier finished with 45 saves in helping his team to an eight-game winning streak. He withstood the Sharks’ shot advantages of 17-7 in the second and 21-6 in the third. San Jose’s ineffectual power play went 1-for-7.
The Avalanche’s speedy Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist, teammate Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists, Nieto had an assist, and Comeau had two assists.
The Sharks’ Marc-Edouard Vlasic had a goal and assist and teammates Joe Thornton had a goal and Kevin Labanc had two assists. MacKinnon now has 17 points during Colorado’s win streak with seven goals and 10 assists.
San Jose, winners of three in a row, trailed 3-0 as Colorado continued their leading trend with a barrage of goals in the first.
MacKinnon scored two goals in under a minute–the second on a power play–to make it 2-0 by 8:01. The first came when he scored through Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s legs, Gabriel Landeskog then Rantanen touching the puck first in the opposite end. The second came around the horn from Rantanen and then Samuel Girard, as MacKinnon rocketed the puck between Jones’ left arm and left pad.
Carl Soderberg made it 3-0 at 18:14. Comeau zipped the puck longside the boards to Nieto. With Tomas Hertl and Dylan DeMelo’s sticks nearby and approaching, Nieto was then able to transfer the puck over DeMelo’s stick to Soderberg up front. From the edge of the faceoff circle, Carl Soderberg tallied through a narrow space between Jones’ glove and pad.
The Sharks were unable to score during the power plays at 11:47 and 18:47.
The Avalanche resumed their push in the second, though not before San Jose had five more shots on the power play.
After the pass from Mark Barberio, MacKinnon shot down the slot through a line of traffic and Rantanen made sure the count was 4-0 at 1:34.
San Jose’s Joonas Donskoi hit the post at 9:01.
43 seconds later, the Sharks finally broke through Bernier and their goose eggs on the power play with one second left on special teams. Vlasic set up Labanc, who fired and Timo Meier swept the puck after it dropped past Bernier.
San Jose had another power play at 17:26, during which they attacked the net five more times.
The Sharks remained undaunted, leading off the third with a goal 29 seconds in, to make it 4-2.
Labanc aimed at net, Hertl touched the puck and Vlasic finished the play.
San Jose’s 4-3 goal came off a 2-on-1. Pavelski passed over the far blue line to Burns who crossed the pass to Thornton in front of Bernier and made a swick goal to score. It was Thornton’s fourth game with a goal in each.
The Sharks’ two power plays after that came at 7:35 (seven shots) and 10:24. They also took a penalty at 13:59 which shifted momentum.
Game notes: In the second, Pavelski tripped over Soderberg’s stick to the left of Jones and Soderberg got cut by Pavelski’s skate.
Colorado’s Patrik Nemeth blocked a game-high seven shots.
Labanc and Burns had a game-high seven shots apiece.
Up next: San Jose will head home to host the Pittsburgh Penguins for one game Saturday at 5pm.
Photo credit: San Jose Sharks
On the San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa for Wednesday, January 17, 2018:
1) From the start of the game, the San Jose Sharks defensive game was in check holding the Los Angeles Kings on Monday to just one goal.
2) Goalie Martin Jones stopped 36 shots for a .972 percentage and had a shutout going until 12:42 of the third period.
3) Jones says it’s easier to prepare for the Kings or the Pacific Division games because the Sharks are familiar with their Pacific Division opponents.
4) Sharks had their offense going right from the start against LA with a Mikkel Boedker goal in the first period.
5) In Arizona, the Sharks came away with a one goal win 3-2 in a shootout on Tuesday night. The Sharks captain Joe Pavelski scored the only goal of the shootout the first attempt of the extra stanza.
6) The Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell stopped 30 shots against the Coyotes. Sharks play by play announcer Dan Rusanowsky called his 2000th game. Rusanowsky whose been with the Sharks since day one in 1991.
The SJ Sharks Podcast with Mary Lisa can be heard each Wednesday and with Len Shapiro Mondays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
~ Photo credit: Darin Stephens @SharksStats
~ By Pearl Allison Lo
~ Aaron Dell made 30 saves in his first shootout and radio play master Dan Rusanowsky announced the San Jose Sharks’ 3-2 win versus the Arizona Coyotes in his 2,000th NHL game Tuesday.
The ‘Desert Dogs’ took another tough loss, this one also beyond regulation, after climbing back from a 2-0 deficit.
This quick rematch between the two teams was not as crazy as the last meetup in terms of the amount of goals scored. However, it was still a tight one and went beyond last game from overtime into a shootout.
Joe Pavelski scored the game-winner on the Sharks’ first try and the team is now second in the Pacific Division.
San Jose also moved to 15-0-2 after leading past two periods. Before this win, the team had lost the second game of their last four back-to-backs.
For Arizona, it was their third straight loss beyond regulation, third straight shootout loss and fourth straight overall loss.
The Coyotes’ Brad Richardson had a goal and assist and for the Sharks. Both Joe Thornton and Mikkel Boedker reached three-game point streaks with their second goals in as many games.
Christian Dvorak took a costly penalty at 4:21 of the first as Thornton scored midway to make it 1-0. Logan Couture took Thornton’s pass instead of the intended recipient Pavelski and Thornton cleaned up Couture’s rebound. Tomas Hertl collected the second assist. Thornton now has five points in three games with three goals.
San Jose duplicated their lead just 34 seconds into the second, as Boedker scored on his fifth shot in two games. Joakim Ryan transferred the puck across the far blue line to Brent Burns who slid the puck to Boedker in the neutral zone. Boedker then raced to the net on a 2-on-1 and picked the side of the net with a defender right in front of him.
Arizona took a bit of the edge off when Jordan Martinook redirected Jason Demers’ shot from the point to make it 2-1 at 16:05. The goal came half a minute after the Sharks killed off a too many men penalty. Brad Richardson acquired the second assist. It was Martinook’s first goal in 2018.
The second period was also an efficient one, as the goals came from only five shots per team.
The Coyotes nearly had their own 30 second opening goal in the third, but Dell was able to hold Nick Cousins’ puck at his doorstep. He later stopped a 2-on-1 versus Richard Panik.
Arizona remained undeterred and finally scored the game-tying goal at 6:10. Oliver Ekman-Larsson passed across the blue line to Cousins who aimed at Dell. It was Richardson’s turn to score as he took the rebound off Dell and slid around to score. Richardson’s goal was part of an 8-1 shot advantage for the Coyotes.
After a period of inert offense for San Jose, Burns, Chris Tierney and Justin Braun had shots in just over a minute. Neither team could stop each other from going to their fourth overtime game of the year though.
Dell and the Sharks killed off a 4-on-3 penalty in overtime.
Game notes: Antti Raanta was in net this game for Arizona. He made 20 saves and suffered his third straight loss, two of them beyond regulation.
Up next: San Jose will complete their three-game road trip Thursday at 6pm versus the Colorado Avalanche.
~ Photo credit: San Jose Sharks
~ By Pearl Allison Lo
~ LOS ANGELES — The San Jose Sharks had their defense and offense clicking as they held onto their lead throughout the game against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center Monday.
San Jose goalie Martin Jones rebounded with his best showing since the last time the Sharks played the Kings, with a .972 save percentage against 36 shots. He had a shutout until 12:42 of the final frame.
Before the Kings’ goal, the Sharks and Jones had also scored seven straight unanswered goals versus Los Angeles, dating back to November 12.
On playing the Kings, Jones addressed the media, “It’s easier to prepare for games against these guys or any division games. Those are obviously big four-point games for us. We know what the standings are like, and we know how difficult it is.”
Meanwhile, the Kings, now on a four-game slide, matched a season-long losing streak from November, which occurred at the same time they faced the Sharks.
Darcy Kuemper was in net for Los Angeles the first time since December 16. He had his first regulation loss (5-1-3), as he made 29 saves.
The Sharks’ offense was led by the third line of Mikkel Boedker, Chris Tierney and Joonas Donskoi. Boedker had a goal, Tierney had a goal and assist and Donskoi had two assists. Dylan DeMelo, who returned from injured reserve, also had two assists. He and teammate Brenden Dillon finished +3 for the day.
On contributing right after his return, DeMelo uttered, “I think it just starts in the D-zone and just playing hard and whenever you got an opportunity you got to try and make the most of it the best you can. It’s not going to work every time, but at least you’re getting up there and being aggressive.”
Tierney made it 1-0 with the second shot of the game as DeMelo saved the puck from going out at the point before shooting. The puck then went to Donskoi, who circled around before passing across to a wide open Tierney. The Kings’ Christian Folin, Kuemper and Kurtis Macdermid were preoccupied with Donskoi.
“Joonas with a no-look pass, kind of just fed it backdoors…he’s been doing a lot of those lately, so not too surprised, but just happy that he found me,” replied Tierney. Donskoi now has five points in two games.
With 10:29 still left, San Jose had built a 9-1 shot lead–Tierney with two shots and the rest all different players.
Sharks’ coach Pete DeBoer commented, “Yeah…you know when you come in here, you have to be ready to play. The history in here is they they’ve usually taken it to us, the first 10 or 15 minutes of the game…wanted to make sure we were ready. I thought we were great right from the drop of the puck.”
Los Angeles had a similar game plan, but “we didn’t play good at all for 60 minutes tonight. We have to go back and look at some things and try to be better tomorrow,” answered forward Adrian Kempe.
The Kings looked a lot better in the second with 13 shots, but still went up by another goal. Dillon passed to DeMelo in the neutral zone, who shot at net from beyond the left faceoff circle. Melker Karlsson missed the rebound but Barclay Goodrow backed him up with a quick shot past Kuemper at 8:52.
Kyle Clifford tried charging the net with 7:30 left, but Jones stood his ground.
Tomas Hertl tried a shot around sprawled out Kuemper, but Folin made a foot save with 17 seconds left and also blocked a shot from Kevin Labanc with one second remaining.
Following their game trend, San Jose made it 3-0 in the third when Boedker took the puck from Donskoi’s skate up front in to another wide open net at 9:11. It was Boedker’s first goal since November 24. The play started in the opposite ice end as Tierney got his second point of the game.
On Boedker’s play, Tierney mentioned, “He had a lot of chances, thought he was skating well and getting to the net. When he’s going to the net and using his legs, he usually creates a lot of offense…”
Los Angeles’ Trevor Lewis scored into the open right side of the net from Marian Gaborik and Kempe at 12:42. The Kings put themselves out there in the third, outshooting the Sharks 17-5, to overall outshoot them 36-33.
San Jose re-established their three goal lead with 19.4 seconds left when Joe Thornton put in an empty netter with 20 seconds left in the game. The defensive pair of Justin Braun and Marc-Edouard Vlasic got the assists.
Regarding getting the team on the same page, Kings’ coach John Stevens replied, “We regroup. It’s one hockey game. I thought we had some good efforts from our key veterans but they cannot do it on their own. You go to your lineup, there’s young guys getting an opportunity to play more, young veterans getting an opportunity, more responsibility in the lineup…we have to get our team reset on both sides of the puck, and…play with a little urgency that’s necessary. We should be looking at each team like it’s a playoff game right now.”
Game notes: Lewis now has six points in his last six games. Sharks’ right wing Joel Ward also returned, out since January 7. He had a +2 rating with 13:21 of ice time.
Up next: San Jose heads to the second game of their three-game road trip, a back-to-back, as they face the Arizona Coyotes once again on Tuesday at 6 pm PT.
Photo credit: @Shermanbot
On the NHL Podcast with Daniel:
1 Lightning’s Victor Hedman out three to six weeks with a lower-body injury
2 Islanders’ Mathew Barzal enjoys five-point game vs. Rangers
3 Coyotes busy during bye week, dealing Duclair–who Sharks could have used
4 US Army challenging nickname of Vegas Golden Knights
Daniel Dullum does the NHL Podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
Photo credit: San Jose Sharks
By Mary Walsh
SAN JOSE- The San Jose Sharks defeated the Arizona Coyotes 6-5 in overtime at SAP Center Saturday.
It was the Sharks’ first game back after their mid-season break that started last Monday. The Sharks’ goals came from Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and two from Joonas Donskoi. The Coyotes’ goals came from Derek Stepan, Alex Goligoski, Christian Fischer, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Josh Archibald. Sharks’ backup goaltender
Sharks’ backup goaltender Aaron Dell made 13 saves on 14 shots after coming in to relieve Martin Jones en route to a thrilling victory. Coyotes goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 38 saves on 44 shots in a losing effort.
After the game, Dell said: “It wasn’t too bad. We were playing pretty well, I think the bounces just weren’t really going our way. I guess they weren’t really going anyone’s was. Kind of a weird night all around.”
Sharks’ head coach Pete DeBoer said:
It looked like the first game back after a five day break. I thought we had great energy, great legs. We were making some really good plays, I thought a little loose in some situations defensively. But you know, we found away. It was one of those games where there were some strange bounces and the chances they got they ended up sticking in the net, so we had to show some resiliency and we did.
The first period exploded with six goals scored. Every time the Sharks took a lead, the Coyotes tied it up. Joe Thornton scored at 5:53, off a sneaky behind the net pass from Pavelski. Stepan scored a few minutes later, with a shot from the faceoff circle that touched Jones’ left sleeve and went in. Assists went to Brendan Perlini and Richard Panik.
Joe Pavelski scored a power play goal at 10:59. Pavelski’s shot initially seemed to go off of Tomas Hertl’s stick, but in fact, it went off of Coyotes defenseman Jason Demers’ stick. Assists went to Thornton and Brent Burns. 1:17 after that goal, Alex Goligoski scored off a faceoff win by Stepan.
Logan Couture answered that with a goal about a minute and a half later. The Coyotes were breaking out of their zone when Burns sent a pass back the other way. Donskoi caught it and fought his way to the net under pursuit. He managed to get a shot off and it rebounded gently to Couture as he came down on the other side of the ice. Scott Wedgewood could not get back across and Couture had an open net. Assists went to Burns and Donskoi.
Christian Fischer tied it up a third time less than 30 seconds later. His backhand beat on a breakaway after a Sharks miscue at the Coyotes’ blue line. An assist went to Kevin Connauton.
That was the third goal given up on six shots for Jones. Dell came in to replace him.
The second period was predictably more sedate. Donskoi got lucky with a breakaway, set up by his goaltender and Mikkel Boedker. He was even luckier when, as Wedgewood came out to poke the puck away, his stick collided with Wedgewood and the puck popped out of the collision and then bounced over the goalie and into the net. Assists went to Boedker and Dell.
Going into the third period, the Sharks had taken over 50 attempted shots for their 4-3 lead, while the Coyotes had fewer than 30.
The Coyotes tied the game at four apiece when Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s shot from the blue line went off of Tim Heed in front of the net. The Coyotes took their first lead at 6:22. Archibald’s shot, again from up near the blue line, got through with the help of some traffic in front of Dell. DeBoer issued a challenge on the bass of goaltender interference. The goal stood up.
The Sharks pulled Dell with 2:17 left in regulation. They used almost every remaining second and Donskoi scored with just 15.8 seconds left. Burns had taken a shot from the blue line that was stopped by Demers’ skate. The puck trickled under Wedgewood and Donskoi was there to tuck it across the line. Assists went to Burns and Chris Tierney.
The Coyotes started overtime with possession, but a miscue at center ice gave Chris Tierney a breakaway. He took the shot, but was also able to get the puck back after the rebound. The Sharks held the puck almost exclusively after that until Pavelski’s shot caused some chaos at the Coyotes net. Marc-Edouard Vlasic followed Dvorak into the net. The puck went into the net off Dvorak’s skate, though, Vlasic’s stick seemed to touch it as well. The NHL situation room challenged it for goaltender interference, but the goal held up. Assists went to Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton.
Up Next: The Sharks next play the Kings on Monday in Los Angeles at 1:00 pm PT.
Photo credit: @thecomeback
On the San Jose Sharks Podcast with Mary Lisa Walsh:
1 The Sharks finished the five game round trip last Sunday going 1-2-2. It was not the kind of road trip shows head coach Peter DeBoer had in mind
2 Logan Couture scored San Jose’s only goal in the 4-1 loss to Winnipeg Sunday
3 Sharks goalie Marty Jones in goal stopped 26 shots but allowed four Winnipeg goals
4 For the Jets 26-11-7 goals for their game against the Sharks on Sunday Marko Dano, Matt Hendricks, and Mathieu Perrault two goals
5 The Sharks get their only win of this road trip in Montreal last week Monday. The Sharks return to San Jose Saturday and then set sail for their next road trip Mon Jan 15th in Los Angeles.
Mary Lisa Walsh does Sharks hockey podcasts each Wednesday at http://www.sportsadioservice.com
Photo credit: San Jose Sharks
On the San Jose Sharks Podcast with Len Shapiro:
1 The Sharks have lost three straight and four out of five on this last road trip. It was an important trip meaning that the Sharks could have gained ground on the LA Kings and Vegas Golden Knights
2 Sharks’ Logan Couture scored a power play goal and three assists and Sharks goalie Martin Jones had 26 saves great efforts but the Jets were much too much in the 4-1 loss
3 Despite the loss, head coach Peter DeBoer said the Sharks got four out 10 points, mainly from the overtime loses in Toronto and Ottawa
4 The Sharks also got a win in Montreal last week–their only win on the trip
5 The Sharks return home for a home game against the Arizona Coyotes Saturday night before a three-game road trip that starts in Los Angeles on Monday
Len Shapiro does the San Jose Sharks Podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
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