Patrick Marleau’s confidence gets better with the scoring streak (Part 2)
Continuing from where we left off in the first part, Patrick Marleau was definitely going through a rough patch this season and some also started to question his inclusion in the team.
There were many statements made by some of the big names in the game that he should be replaced but Sharks’ coach was keen on giving him a chance.
This finally paid off for him in the seventh game of the series when Sharks won the game to clinch the series. Marleau scored the winning goal of the game, making an important contribution and silencing his critics.
After scoring two goals in the third game of the series against Vancouver Canucks, he was asked as to what did he did to change his performance.
"I think things are just starting to go in. I'm also playing with the best passer in the league", Marleau said regarding Joe Thornton. "Just getting to some good areas, and he's finding me, and the puck's starting to go in".
Marleau is getting better with each game and each shot he bags is better than the previous one and is more threatening to the goal.
"It's nice to produce and help the team win, but what it boils down to is winning right now", Marleau said. "You do whatever it takes to win. Each line played really well tonight, and we're going to need that again in our next game".
Sharks was hoping for a breakthrough after it was unable to come up with wins in the first two games.
Both games kicked off with Sharks in brilliant form as it scored the opening goal on both occasions. However, they just couldn’t last for the entire game and Canucks took the game away from them on both occasions.
After Sharks took an early lead in the game, they continued to press forward and was brilliant in defence.
It cut down attacks even before they came near the goal. As a result, Canucks was suffocating when it came on attacks and was restricted to just one shot in the opening 15 minutes of the game.
On the other hand, Sharks’ offensive continuously piled up shots on goal and finally scored two more goals to put themselves in a strong position as the team went into the break.
Marleau has certainly been able to come up with some brilliant performances in the last two games and if he is able to continue on what he has been doing, Sharks isn’t still out of this series as yet.
The win was important for Sharks as they were trailing 2-0 and if it lost it would have fallen behind 3-0.
Now that they trail 2-1, they have a chance to even things with the next game on home ice.
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