Tag: Ottawa Senators

Sharks’ road woes continue as Matt Duchene quickly scores game-winner to lift Senators to 6-5 win in OT

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

Photo credit: San Jose Sharks

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost in overtime 6-5 to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre Friday night. Three third period goals propelled the Senators into the extra period, where Matt Duchene scored the game-winner just seven seconds in. The loss is the third for the Sharks on this five-game road trip. San Jose has just one win since they hit the road on New Years Eve 2017.

Tomas Hertl did his part for San Jose, scoring twice. Additional goals came from Brent Burns, Chris Tierney and Melker Karlsson. For Ottawa, Matt Duchene scored twice, including the overtime winner, while Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, Ryan Dzingle and Derick Brassard scored the balance of the Ottawa goals. Aaron Dell made 37 saves for San Jose, while Craig Anderson made 30 saves for Ottawa.

After the game, Sharks captain Joe Pavelski talked about the team’s third period breakdown:

Positives are there, you know, you come out, you get that lead, we played well. We get a point out of tonight but obviously what we’re focussed on right now is that third period and that was uncharacteristic of us. We’ll have to be aware of the situation and next time we’re in it we got to, you know, establish our game better. We always talk about it: it doesn’t matter if we have the lead or not, we got to play a certain way in the third and you can’t sit back. We might have a little bit too much tonight.

The first goal of the game was scored short-handed by Hertl at 6:29. Brent Burns snuck a pass to Logan Couture along the wall and Couture hit Hertl as he crossed the San Jose blue line for the breakaway.

Dzingle tied it up after Stone picked off a Kevin Labanc pass to Logan Couture on the Senators’ blue line. Stone and Brassard got away from the Sharks defense and no one was there to cover Dzingle as he came down the slot late. He arrived just in time to catch a clean pass from Stone and slip the puck around Dell at 10:05. Assists went to Stone and Brassard.

Karlsson answered three minutes later, tipping a blue line shot from Joakim Ryan. A second assist went to Jannik Hansen.

The Sharks seemed to run away with the game in the second period with two power play goals in a row. The first came in the final seconds of the power play. Joonas Donskoi, Chris Tierney and Timo Meier entered the zone fast with a pass from Tierney to Donskoi. Donskoi’s shot came off of Anderson’s pads right to Tierney who kicked the puck to his stick and took the shot. Assists went to Donskoi and Tim Heed.

The next goal came less than two minutes later, on yet another power play. Joe Pavelski carried the puck in and had to pass the puck back to Couture at the point. Couture redirected the puck to Burns along the blue line and he wasted no time on the shot. Couture and Pavelski had the assists.

The Senators started the climb back with a power play goal from Mark Stone just over a minute later. Erik Karlsson took a shot from the blue line that broke Couture’s stick. The dead shot trickled to Hoffman. He quickly passed it to Stone who put it by Dell on the short side.

At 13:27, Hertl extended the Sharks lead again, with a desperate wrap around shot while falling to the ice. The puck went off of Anderson’s stick, but assists went to Couture and Brenden Dillon.

Derick Brassard scored just 26 seconds into the third period. His shot came from a bad angle and went off of Dell’s skate through a gap by the post. Assists went to Stone and Karlsson.

The shots were 11-1 for the Senators in the third, when Matt Duchene scored off a rebound created by Bobby Ryan’s shot from the slot. Matt Hoffman also had an assist.

Hoffman followed that up by tying the game at 10:48. Dell could not get across quickly enough to stop Hoffman’s one-timer off Duchene’s pass. Assists went ot Duchene and Bobby Ryan.

Hoffman won the faceoff and went right into a two on one with Duchene. His last-moment pas across the goal mouth left Duchene with an almost open net.

The Sharks next play on Sunday in Winnipeg against the Jets at 12 pm PT.

Sharks Score Five Again, Shut Out Slumping Sens 5-0

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

Photo credit: San Jose Sharks

by M. Walsh

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks handed the Ottawa Senators a resounding defeat to the tune of 5-0 at SAP Center on Saturday night. The win followed up a surprising 5-4 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, when the Sharks led a furious comeback after trailing by three goals. Saturday’s goals came from Logan Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Melker Karlsson, Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl. Couture, Pavelski, Brent Burns and Kevin Labanc all had multi-point games and back-up goaltender Aaron Dell made 25 saves for the Sharks’ shutout win. At the other end of the ice, Craig Anderson made 45 saves on 50 shots in a losing effort for the Senators.

Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer said that San Jose’s goal was to start fast against Ottawa, avoiding the slow start that marked their previous game: “I liked our game. Compared to the game against Carolina, I thought we were really sharp and really carried over the way we played in the third period against them into tonight.”

The Sharks checked a lot of boxes in Saturday’s game, killing four of four penalties and scoring on two of seven power plays. Tim Heed returned after dealing with an upper body injury, and Paul Martin is scheduled to start a conditioning stint with the Barracuda. So much rosy news begs the question of whether the Sharks have reached a turning point in the season.

DeBoer would not say that it is a turning point, but he did say that the goals are important for more than the score: “It was nice to score some goals, nice to get some power play goals. Guys have been working awful hard, we generate a lot of chances and we haven’t finished enough this year. So it was nice to have a night like that. Whether we can do that again tomorrow night I don’t know. But confidence is a big part of scoring and there was a lot of guys feeling good about themselves tonight.”

Logan Couture opened the scoring near the midpoint of the first period. The Sharks had outshot the Sens 10-0 at the 12-minute mark. Dell had just fought off the Senators’ first couple of shots in a flurry of activity on the edge of his crease. After Hertl won a defensive zone faceoff, the Sharks went the other way fast, with Labanc making a lovely pass so Couture could beat Anderson as he moved across. Assists went to Labanc and Justin Braun.

At the end of the first period, the shot count was 16-6 San Jose.

Early in the second period, the Sharks had just come off of a power play when Vlasic blasted a shot past Anderson. Tim Heed caught a pass from Kevin Labanc from behind the net, and sent the puck across the ice to the waiting Vlasic.

The Senators were keeping pace at least in shots past the midpoint of the period, but the Sharks did not let up. Joe Thornton passed the puck backward behind the net to a trailing Pavelski, who quickly sent it back up above the goal line for Melker Karlsson to pop into the net.

The Sharks’ power play came to life in the third period with two goals, one early and one late. The first third period power play resulted from a fight between Marcus Sorensen and Ryan Dzingel, when Dzingel was given an extra minor for roughing. Pavelski tipped a quick Couture shot from high in the slot. A second assist went to Brent Burns.

The Senators appeared to have scored at 5:12, in a power play that followed soon after the Sharks’ fourth goal. Braun was in the box for slashing. Matt Duchene took a shot from the face off dot and Bobby Ryan pushed it in. The official waved it off and did not even stop play. On later review, the NHL concluded that the puck had not crossed the line before Vlasic swept the puck back out.

The final power play of the game came when Alex Burrows used the butt end of his stick to bloody Dylan DeMelo’s face. Burrows was ejected with a fighting major and a roughing minor. DeMelo received roughing minor as he went to the dressing room to be patched up. Tomas Hertl scored after catching a bouncing puck off of Erik Karlsson’s hand. Assists went to Brent Burns and Logan Couture.

The Sharks next play on Sunday at 6:00 pm PT against the Minnesota Wild.

Sharks Fall to Senators 4-2

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

By Mary Walsh

AP photo Sens Kyle Turis pushes the Sharks Marc Edouard-Vlasic during first period battle for the puck in Ottawa

The San Jose Sharks lost the third game in their current road trip, falling to the Ottawa Senators by a score of 4-2. As they had the night before in Toronto, the Sharks scored first and then gave up the lead. Unlike the Toronto game, they followed up on a weak second period with a worse third. The Sharks gave the swift Senators too many opportunities, odd-man rushes and power plays. That translated into four goals, three scored in the third period. Those goals were scored by Bobby Ryan, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Chris Wideman and Erik Karlsson. The Sharks’ goals came from Joe Thornton and Brent Burns.

The first period went by scoreless, with just two penalties called in the final five minutes. Both went against Ottawa, but their penalty kill kept the Sharks off the board. In their first power play, a hooking call against Kyle Turris, the Sharks recorded no shots. The closest they came was a Thornton shot that went off off Joel Ward in front of the net. The second power play carried over to the second period, the result of a tripping call against Mark Stone at 19:18. It is worth noting that the penalties were drawn by Joonas Donskoi and Melker Karlsson. After the first period, the Sharks had a slight lead in shots at 13-12.

Ottawa and San Jose both tend to win when they score first, so the first goal was eagerly anticipated, if misleading. It came 29 seconds into the middle frame, during the carry over penalty time. Though they lost the opening faceoff, the Sharks regained control quickly. The top power play unit established themselves in the offensive zone and a quick pass from Brent Burns near the right faceoff circle found Joe Thornton on the opposite side. Thornton’s shot was quick and went through the traffic cleanly into the net. Assists went to Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski.

Just over a minute later, Tomas Hertl was called from tripping, giving the Senators the first of three power plays in the second period, including a five on three. The Sharks killed the penalties but gave up an even strength goal at 4:46. Justin Braun caught a puck in the defensive zone and seemed to be trying to pass it off the boards to Marleau. Bobby Ryan was quicker to the puck than Marleau. He skated in and around Braun and then beat Stalock to tie the game.

It was a bad spot in Stalock’s game, which did have some bright spots. Near the end of the second period, Brent Burns had a puck jump by him on the Senators blue line, allowing Ottawa defenseman Dave Dziurzynski and forward Alex Chiasson to go the other way, with only Paul Martin in position to defend. Martin stayed with Dziurzynski but could not prevent his pass below the faceoff circle. Alex Stalock read the play perfectly and came to the top of his crease to reach out and block the pass with his stick. He caught the puck up and tapped it in the direction of Brent Burns, who by now had come back to help out. It was a good indication of alertness and confidence from a goaltender who has not played a lot of games this season.

The game remained tied through until 8:19 of the third period. After a shot by Diurzinsky went off of Stalock’s mask, Pageau picked up the rebound and put a shot through Stalock. Stalock sensed that it was behind him, and turned to try to catch it, but it got by. Assists went to Dziurzynski and Cody Ceci.

Stalock made a quick trip to the bench after, where heStalock got a new mask. Evidently the shot to the head did some damage to his armor.

The Sens stretched their lead with just over seven minutes left. Dennis Wideman took a shot from the blue line, while Chris Neil blocked Stalock’s view. Two Sharks and another Senator were also in the goaltender’s line of sight, so he probably did not see the shot at all as it flew by into the top corner. Assists went to Curtis Lazar and Shane Prince.

Ottawa added to the lead when some offensive zone action from the Sharks left the ice open for another two on one against, this time by Karlsson and Hoffman, with Brenden Dillon trying to defend. Hoffman drew Stalock to the right, then sent a pass around Dillon to Karlsson. 4-1 Senators. Assists went to Hoffman and Bobby Ryan.

With 2:24 left, Brent Burns got one back for the Sharks. Hertl, Goodrow and Wingels got the play started and Burns skated in to finish it up with a shot from in front of the net.

The Sharks had a 20 second power play when Mark Borowiecki was called for boarding Joel Ward. It was not long enough to make a difference.

Final score: 4-2 Senators.

Goalie Craig Anderson made 31 saves on 33 shots for the Senators. Alex Stalock made 31 saves on 35 shots for the Sharks.

Brent Burns led the team by a significant margin with seven shots on goal. Joel Ward had four hits and four shots. The Sharks were outshot by the Senators 35-33.

Some of the Sharks lines looked different Friday. Dainius Zubrus skated with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski again, while Tomas Hertl skated with Barclay Goodrow and Tommy Wingels. Measuring by ice time, that second group made up Friday’s fourth line. Matt Nieto was promoted to the line with Marleau and Ward. As previously mentioned, Chris Tierney centered Melker Karlsson and Joonas Donskoi. Despite their stats in Friday’s game, that line looked pretty good. They drew penalties and showed promise as a unit.

The Sharks next play on Sunday in Chicago against the Blackhawks at 4:00 PT.

Senators Hand Sharks 8th Home Loss

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE- A 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators was not the game the Sharks were looking for. Home is where the heart is, or maybe it’s just where they have to let you in when you come knocking. In any case, home has not been a very lucky place for the Sharks. After seven straight losses, the Sharks were looking for their first home win in February. They finished the month with not one home win.

Sharks goals were scored by Tommy Wingels and Patrick Marleau. Wingels is the only Shark to have faced Senators’ goalie Andrew Hammond before Saturday, as they played against each other in college. Ottawa goals were scored by Mike Hoffman (2), Mark Stone and Erik Karlsson. The loss left the Sharks still two spots and three points out of a wild card playoff position, with just 19 games left to play. Eight of those will be played at home, for better or worse.

The game started auspiciously for the Sharks. Matt Irwin battled his way past one Senator then eluded three more to put the put in the vicinity of the blue paint. From there, James Sheppard and Tommy Wingels took over to push the puck past Ottawa goaltender Hammond. Coming off of back to back shutouts, it ended his streak at 122:27. Assists on the goal went to Matt Irwin and Matt Nieto.

The Sharks continued to assert themselves through the rest of the first period. The shot gap was as high as 9-2 at one point, which did not accurately reflect how disorderly the Senators were. Their best chance came during the final minute of the period, when a couple of shots and rebounds made Niemi work in the Sharks’ net. The Senators buzzed but the Sharks pushed them back out.

The first ended with the score 1-0 Sharks and the shots 12-10 Sharks.

A couple of minutes into the second period, Tommy Wingels was called for hooking. It was the first penalty of the game. The Sharks handled the penalty kill well, and a couple of minutes later Brent Burns was called for interference after taking Colin Geening into the boards a little bit late.

The Senators’ power pay had a good chance early when Mika Zibanejad got around the Sharks defenders. He skated in close enough to push Niemi back a little but the Sharks netminder gloved the puck anyway.  It took the Sens another try to tie the game. A shot from the point came off the back boards to Erik Karlsson. Karlsson put the puck under Niemi’s pads for his 15th of the seaosn. Kyle Turris was given the assist.

The teams were also tied on the shot clock near the midpoint of the game, with 17 shots each.

To balance things further, each team sent a player to the box at 9:10: Logan Couture for tripping and Mark Stone for cross-checking. The game did remain pretty even for a while, with the teams trading shots and not scoring.

The Sharks got their first power play with 7:03 left in the second period, when Colin Greening went to the box for boarding. It took the Sharks 22 seconds to sort out their power play. A shot from Brent Burns at the blue line hit Pavelski in front of the net and bounced to Marleau on the side. Marleau put it past Hammond for his 14th of the season. Assists went to Pavelski and Burns.

The calls kept coming. With 5:42 left in the second, Kyle Turris went to the box for holding. The Senators started their penalty kill better this time, making the Sharks chase them around the ice for a bit. The Sharks got control of the puck with almost a minute gone in the power play, and then they were called for icing. Their next attempt produced a shot but did not hold the zone for long.

The second power play was a mess but the shift after it ended was good. Barclay Goodrow made a legitimate nuisance of himself for the Sens, at both ends of the ice. The fourth line seemed to lead the way back for the Sharks, as the Thornton-Pavelski-Hertl line came back with a better shift than they had had in some minutes.

The Senators had a good last minute of the second period, as they had in the first, but they only gained ground on the shot clock, not the score board. The second ended with the Sharks still ahead in both categories, 23-22 in shots and 2-1 on the scoreboard.

The Senators tied the game up again when Antti Niemi could not corral a rebound, leaving a gap for Mark Stone to shoot through. The goal came at 3:52. The assist went to Kyle Turris.

Brendan Dillon went to the box for tripping, a reasonable penalty to take as he was stopping a dangerous-looking breakaway. The gamble did not pay off, as the Senators took the lead during the ensuing power play. A shot from the point went close by the outside of one post, came off the backboards perfectly for the Senators’ leading scorer Mike Hoffman. The assists to Mika Zibanejad and Erik Karlsson.

There were moments in the latter part of the third period that looked like a mirror image of the first period, with the Sharks struggling to get through the neutral zone and the Senators stopping them at every turn. The Sens crept ahead on the shot clock and held fast to their 3-2 lead.

In the last five minutes, the Sharks did show more composure, minimizing turnovers and throwing the puck away less. But the Senators had their game in order and the lead made them steadfast. When the Sharks pulled Niemi for the extra skater, it did not take long for the Sens to take the puck off of them. It was Mike Hoffman who scored in the empty net.

Line changes: Tye McGinn was inserted on a line with Andrew Desjardins and Barclay Goodrow. Matt Nieto moved to a line with Tommy Wingels and James Sheppard. Tomas Hertl got another shot at the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski. That left Melker Karlsson on a line with Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau.

Joe Pavelski led the Sharks in hits with five, and in shots with four. Marc-Edouard Vlasic blocked four shots and Brent Burns led in ice time at 25:17. Antti Niemi made 27 saves on 30 shots.

Six Senatoers had three shots apiece, while only four had no shots. Mark Borowiecki led the Sens in hits with six and Erik Karlsson was their ice time leader at 28:22. Andrew Hammond made 28 saves on 30 shots for the win.

The Sharks next play on Monday against the Montreal Canadiens.

With the trade deadline looming, Sharks fans may have no more than trade envy to look forward to. To that end, the Blackhawks have acquired pending UFA Antoine Vermette from the Arizona Coyotes, in exchange for defenseman Klas Dahlbeck and a 2015 first round pick. They also added Kimmo Timonen from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for conditional picks.

The Anaheim Ducks acquired Tomas Fleischmann from the Florida Panthers in exchange for Dany Heatley and a third round pick.

The Panthers added Jaromir Jagr to their lineup in exchange for picks to the New Jersey Devils. With the Dany Heatley addition they must have felt a need for some veteran playoff experience to guide their thriving young group forward. They got it.

The LA Kings acquired defenseman Andrej Sekera from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a prospect and a first round pick. The Winnipeg Jets acquired Jiri Tlusty from the Hurricanes, in exchange for a 2016 third round pick and a 2015 conditional sixth round pick.

Out of the conference but still worth noting for Sharks fans: Daniel Winnik has been traded from the Maple Leafs and has joined the Pittsburgh Penguins for the playoff run.

Game of Firsts Keeps the Sharks on Top

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

By Mary Walsh

OTTAWA- Sunday, the San Jose Sharks defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-2 with goaltender Alex Stalock making his first NHL start. Stalock had played in 2 NHL games before, but always in relief. James Sheppard and Andrew Desjardins also scored their first goals of the season, bringing the number of 2013-14 Sharks with goals to 16. The Sharks are now 10-1-1 this season.

After the game, Stalock spoke on CSNCA‘s television broadcast:

Being there before, going in in relief is a little bit easier, because you don’t have all day to think of it. But you’re thinking about it all night– I found out yesterday– and thinking about it all day today. But it was nice to have a five o’clock game, a quick turnaround, didn’t have much time to think, just go and play.

Stalock stopped 38 of 40 shots from the Senators. The Sharks had not allowed more than 31 shots in a game before Sunday. The Senators’ quick, persistent forecheck was one reason they had so many shots. The Sharks’ energy level was inconsistent, almost sluggish at times. That could be because Sunday’s game followed a very quick turnaround.

The Sharks’ game in Montreal had ended a mere 17 hours earlier. Only two San Jose players had not played the night before: Stalock and forward Mike Brown. Other changes to the lineup included moving James Sheppard to the top line with Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl. Sheppard had been a healthy scratch two games earlier. Matt Nieto was out, though he had been expected to play. After the game started, news came that he was not a healthy scratch.

The Sharks didn’t look especially weary to start the game. Tomas Hertl reminded everyone that he bears watching when he elluded the Senators defense and slid the puck by Craig Anderson just 1:16 into the game. Andrew Desjardins followed at 6:35 with a quick, hard backhander that surprised everyone. Desjardins had to look over his shoulder to follow his shot, since his back was to the net. That gave the Sharks a two goal lead.

The Sharks played with that lead for just over four minutes. At 11:07 of the period, Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson cut the lead in half with a shot from the point, while Cory Conacher screened Stalock.

With under three minutes to go in the period, San Jose’s Mike Brown was called for interference on Kyle Turris. With Brown in the box, Logan Couture initiated a short-handed rush off a pass from Tommy Wingels. Couture’s shot was stopped, but Anderson went down to stop Couture’s shot. Before he could recover, Wingels pounced on the puck for a shorthanded goal.

It was during the second period that the Sharks looked weary. With very little zone time, they still managed 11 shots, but the Senators outskated them at every turn. Karlsson’s first period goal served as a model for the Senators’ second goal, the only one scored in the second period. Near the midpoint of the period, with traffic buzzing in front of Stalock, Marc Methot‘s slapshot from the blue line brought the Senators back within one.

The Sharks came out refreshed for the third period. It took Joe Thornton under 90 seconds to get behind the goal line with the puck. James Sheppard, just arrived in front of the net, took Thornton’s pass and put the Sharks back up by two.

A little over six minutes later, Justin Braun and Joe Pavelski executed a play that should show up on the week’s highlights. Tommy Wingels picked up a mishandled puck from Senators defenseman Jared Cowen, carried it out of the Sharks’ zone and passed it to Pavelski who was just crossing the Senators’ blue line. Pavelski sent the puck to Justin Braun, who entered the zone at a good clip. Each player had pressure to contend with. The Sharks’ defenseman continued almost to the corner, drawing defense away from Pavelski and Anderson far out and to the side of the net. Anderson slowed Braun’s shot but it got by, sitting behind the goalie for a beat before Pavelski came flying in to put it home. Pavelski finished by crashing into the goal post. The goal was reviewed in case it had gone off of his skate. The goal held up as Pavelski had his stick well in position on the way in.

Each team had 3 power plays in the game, neither scored on any of those. The Sharks return to California tonight, finishing up their road trip on Wednesday, against the Kings in Los Angeles.