NHL Update: San Jose Sharks doubled up Boston Bruins, 2-0
Antti Niemi made 26 saves he faced for his third shutout of the season, as San Jose Sharks crushed Boston Bruins, 2-0, at TD Garden on Saturday night.
Logan Couture and Devin Setoguchi lit the lamp for San Jose, which blanked Boston for the first time in franchise history and registered its seventh victory in its previous eight contests.
On some nights we get 45 shots, and others are like this," said San Jose forward Joe Thornton. "For whatever reason, they just kept us on the outside. Still, it was a good win."
Tim Thomas allowed two goals and turned aside 16 shots for Boston, which had three- game win streak stopped.
Sharks got on the board first for 1-0 lead in eighth minute of the opening period. During a power play, Ryane Clowe skated down the left wing and sent a pass into the slot for Couture, who
ripped a backhander past Thomas low to the stick side.
“Vlasic made a great play in the neutral zone to break out,” Couture said. “They had a 2-on-2 and they turned it over. He hit a great stick and kind of turned it back on an odd-man rush and
we capitalized on it. I don’t know if it was a lucky bounce. I think it was just a great play.”
San Jose almost scored another goal just over 7 1/2 minutes into the middle stanza, but it was waved off because Ben Eager clearly interfered with Thomas.
However, Niemi stood strong to keep Boston at bay. He stopped eight shots in the opening session and surrendered some dangerous rebounds, but Boston failed to take advantage.
Milan Lucic got the best opportunity to score when Zdeno Chara let go a slap shot that bounced right to him off the post, but Lucic’s shot went wide.
“I think our team made it very easy for me to see the puck and block the hard ones. It wasn’t too bad,” Niemi said. “We knew they had big, strong guys and they are. They were trying to be
at our net and in front, and trying to make the good screens. I think they did. I lost the pucks a few times, but I think our ‘D’ did a good job of clearing them out for me.”
Setoguchi doubled the advantage 2-0 on an empty netter with three seconds left in the final period and officially sealed the win.
"They won more battles for the puck than we did and that's where I thought the game was decided," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "I don't think we played a bad game. We need to get better
along the boards."
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