Philipp Grubauer – Page 2 – Sports Radio Service

Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE — The Colorado Avalanche edged the San Jose Sharks in Game 2 with a 4-3 win at SAP Center Sunday, tying the second round playoff series at one apiece. Avs’ goals came from Gabriel Landeskog, Tyson Barrie, Matt Nieto and Nathan MacKinnon. Sharks’ goals came from Evander Kane and Brent Burns (2). Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves for Colorado, while Martin Jones made 28 saves on 31 shots for San Jose.

After the game, Sharks forward Evander Kane said: “I thought we did a good job early on, we just let them hang around too long.”

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson elaborated on the same theme:

I think that we played well, we did a lot of good things out there. Just couldn’t find a way to score goals and got a little frustrated as the game went along and started doing our own thing a little too much. We know that doesn’t work in here and you know we should have learned by now but we didn’t. They capitalized on the chances they got and made us play from behind.

Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer pointed to the Sharks’ net-front presence as an issue: “I thought it was a pretty even game. I thought we didn’t get to their net enough. We had some real good looks where he made a couple big saves but I thought we could have made it a little tougher on him traffic-wise on our point shots. And I thought we could have done a better job in front of Jonesy, you know, on their point shots.”

Evander Kane started the scoring at 7:57 of the first. Kane was in front of the net and got behind Cale Makar as a blueline shot from Brent Burns came in. With a couple of strong moves, he fended off Makar and put the puck past Grubauer. Assists went to Brent Burns and Tomas Hertl. It was Kane’s second of the playoffs.

Colorado tied it up at 8:21. Tyson Barrie took a shot from the blue line into traffic and it went off of Gabriel Landeskog right on the edge of the blue paint. It was Landeskog’s second of the playoffs. Assists went to Barrie and Nathan MacKinnon.

The Avalanche got a lead on a goal from Tyson Barrie at 16:31. The play could have easily been called an icing, as Marc-Edouard Vlasic was the first to the hash marks, but the officials did not call it and play continued on.

After the game, Vlasic said “I’ll take the high road and wait for the League’s apology tomorrow.”

Barrie’s shot came from above the face-off circle when the puck emerged from a battle by the other side of the net. Jones was coming across from that and could not stop Barrie’s shot. Assists went to Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen.

Colorado’s lead expanded at 10:10 of the third. Martin Jones looked like he thought he had the puck frozen under him but it was slowly moving behind him. Brenden Dillon got his stick in there to push it away from the goal line but he hit it a little too hard and it bounced off of Jones back into the net. The goal went to Matt Nieto, his third of the playoffs. Assists went to Matt Calvert and Barrie.

The Sharks had some good luck in the form of Alexander Kerfoot’s broken skate, which left Brent Burns free to move and shoot without Kerfoot getting in his way. Burns did just that and brought the Sharks within one at 15:26. Assists went to Erik Karlsson and Marcus Sorensen.

That Sharks momentum was shattered when, moments later, Timo Meier allowed his stick to get into Nathan MacKinnon’s skate and that put the Avalanche on a power play. The Sharks killed off the penalty, but had little time to get the tying goal. With just over a minute to go, they pulled their goaltender for the extra skater. Nathan MacKinnon got control of the puck and put it in the empty net at 18:58. Assists went to Calvert and Philipp Grubauer.

The Sharks did get that third goal, in a 17-second power play at the end of the game. Four skaters battled for puck in the slot, but Tomas Hertl got to it first and tapped it ahead to Burns, who was moving through the outside of the face-off circle. He had a clear shot and he took it. Assists went to Hertl and Kane. That left the Sharks 10 more seconds to tie it with a fourth but they couldn’t get that done.

Melker Karlsson left the game late in the third period after being crushed against the glass by Derick Brassard.

Game 3 will be Tuesday at the Pepsi Center in Denver at 7:00 PM PT.

By Mary Walsh

It could be hard to remember when the Sharks struggled in the shootout, since they have now won in five in a row. Their defeat of the Washington Capitals on Tuesday was not a dominant one, but it was worth two points. It was also worth pride points, as the Sharks extended their current winning streak against Washington to six, and 17-1 since 1999.

After the win, Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan described the game in subdued terms:

It was important for us to start the trip off the right way. [It was] kind of a back and forth affair: they had some momentum, we gained it back. Close game, two pretty good teams that played pretty well.

The modest 2-1 final score was a good indicator of the kind of game it was: a tough defensive game that didn’t leave the star shooters a lot of room to meneuver. The goals were scored by Tyler Kennedy for the Sharks and Alex Ovechkin fo the Capitals, with Patrick Marleau scoring the shootout winner. The final shot count was 36-29 for the Capitals. Each team had one power play, neither gave up a power play goal.

Patrick Marleau spoke during the post game for CSN:

Coming out east we took a little while to get warm, into the game.

They hemmed us in early on but we stuck with it. We were able to get our forecheck going in the first kind of went back the other way in the second, but we came in with a good effort in the third and in overtime.

Washington had 5 shots to the Sharks’ 1 in the first five minutes of the game. The first slip-up came during a line change that let Alex Ovechkin enter the Sharks’ zone with only three players defending. That seemed to set off an offensive flurry for the Capitals.

A very fast fight between Mike Brown and Aaron Volpatti at 11:39 broke up the game, and shortly thereafter Tyler Kennedy scored the first goal of the game.

At 13:30, when Tommy Wingels went off for a change, Kennedy went to the middle of the ice and got to the net in perfect time to deflect a shot from Jason Demers. At intermission, Kennedy described the play:

He made a great change in the offensive zone, and I tried to get out there. And JD made a great pass … that’s a world class pass there and I just tried to get it on net.

By the end of the period, the shots stood at 11-10 Sharks.

Going in to the second period, the Sharks’ weak spot lately, San Jose was lucky to not have worse luck to go with their inefficient puck management.

It took the Capitals almost thirteen minutes to tie the game up in the second period. The goal came from Alex Ovechkin, who took a fast shot from a bad angle and put it up the into the far corner. It was his first shot of the game, off a pass from Karl Alzner. The puck blew past Brad Stuart and Antii Niemi before anyone had time to react.

Nieto and Pavelski changed places on the top two lines at the end of the second period. In a last-second flurry of offense, Brad Stuart scored just after the buzzer. The goal was quickly reviewed but the period ended with the teams still tied.

The second period ended with the shots at 11-9 Washington.

The third period opened with some pressure from Washington, but that fizzled quickly with the first penalty of the game, a tripping call against Nicklas Backstrom.

The Sharks started their power play with a clean breakout and a quick shot on net, but Capitals’ goaltender Philipp Grubauer suffocated the shot and stopped play. After the faceoff, the Sharks had some trouble getting out of their own end, and the next zone entry produced just one shot on net.

The teams traded chances after that, with each taking long turns on the attack. In the first seven minutes, the shots for the period were 5-3 Sharks.

Ten minutes in to the third period, the Sharks were spending a lot of time in their own zone. Niemi had to make a point blank save on Eric Fehr, after he was left to saunter out from behind the net and shoot at will.

That seemed to wake the Sharks up and spur them back onto offense. Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski had the best chances of that shift when they each took a try, Marleau’s shot hitting the post and Pavelski’s ending up in Grubauer’s glove.

After the game, Marleau spoke about the team’s improved play in the third period:

I think we got a lot more time in their zone so it was just trying to get to those loose pucks after we got shots from our point. I think the D played really well tonight, moving the puck back and forth and getting the shots through.

It would be nice to find a couple of those rebounds and put them in but for the most part, we’ll take the two points.

During the last four minutes of the game, McLellan made another lineup change, moving Marleau to the line with Thornton and Nieto, or so it seemed. Thornton was right back out with Burns and Nieto a couple of shifts later.

With a minute and 15 seconds left, the Capitals got their first power play when Marleau was called for hooking Grabovski. McLellan mentioned that after the game:

We almost got it to the point where we didn’t take a penalty, using our legs to check instead of our sticks or our hands. Worked until that last minute but the penalty kill did a good job.

Regulation ended in a tie, with the shots for the third period standing at 13-8 for Washington.

As the game went to overtime, the Capitals had 45 seconds remaining on the man advantage.

Two faceoff wins helped the Sharks kill that off, and the four on four play moved very fast after that. Good chances for Marleau and then Fehr came to naught, turnovers and takeaways kept attacks brief for both sides.

With just over a minute left in overtime, Marc-Edouard Vlasic pestered Jason Chimera relentlessly in the Sharks’ zone, staying with him all the way around the ice and behind the net, until Chimera lost an edge and went down. Still Vlasic kept after him, jostling him so he couldn’t get to his feet. Chimera finally did get up, and on the way he clocked Vlasic in the face with a quick left hand. No penalty was called, though Vlasic was clearly unsettled by the punch.

The teams survived the next minute without scoring and went to a shootout.

Of the six shooters, only Patrick Marleau scored:

I was just trying to use Logan’s move a little bit. He’s had some success with it so I just did that, went to the backhand a little bit then quick to the forehand.

Roster notes:
Matt Irwin back in the game after missing two games with injury. Scott Hannan sat, as did James Sheppard and Matt Tennyson.

The Sharks next play on Thursday in Florida against the Panthers. Puck drop at 4:30 pm PT.

Tag: Philipp Grubauer

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