Minnesota Wild deny San Jose Sharks 2-1 with fifth straight victory -NHL Update
San Jose was looking to snap its two-game losing streak but had their intentions denied as Minnesota took over early in the game as the Wild won, 2-1, over the Sharks to stay hot for their fifth straight victory of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL)
regular season on Tuesday night, December 6, 2011, at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, United States.
Due to their continuous winning and gaining those valuable two points in back-to-back matchups, the Wild continue to secure the top position in the Western Conference, now ahead the Chicago Blackhawks by three points with 39 in total.
At the moment, Minnesota not only leads in the West, but in the entire NHL over the Eastern leaders, Pittsburgh Penguins, as well.
Joe Pavelski kicked off the scoring with his 12th of the regular season in the opening minute of the match followed by two straight from the Minnesota Wild as captain, Mikko Koivu, made the equaliser potted his fifth with less than three minutes
to go and Pierre-Marc Bouchard making the tie-breaker at the 19:48 mark on their first power play opportunity of the night.
"Our special teams let us down a little bit tonight," Pavelski said. "We got the start we wanted and we had enough good looks to put in more than one."
Other than the first period scoring, San Jose missed on 19 more shots on the Minnesota net in the final 40 minutes of game play as the Wild goalie stepped up and blocked shot after shot.
"There were a lot of missed opportunities," Sharks defender Dan Boyle said. "We had a ton of chances but our execution ... that's a word we're going to hear a lot ... we're just not putting the puck in the net right now."
As Minnesota continues to eliminate any opposition in its path, it will certainly be interesting to see whether the Los Angeles Kings will be able to stop their domination when the two teams meet on Thursday.
San Jose Sharks have the next at home against the Dallas Stars on the same day before they kick off the next three on the road straight.
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