San Jose Sharks barely hold off Vancouver Canucks 4-3 in Game 3 of Conference Finals – NHL Playoffs
San Jose made a quick start to ensure they won the match but Vancouver made an even quicker recovery. However, this was not enough as Dan Boyle scored the game-winning goal and led the Sharks to their first victory in the National Hockey League (NHL) Playoff
Western Conference Finals, 4-3, on Friday.
The San Jose home crowd was filled with extreme anticipation as the Sharks finally returned home for game three after two consecutive losses at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Canucks still have a 2-1 lead in the series and will get a chance
to put San Jose on the verge of elimination come game four.
"The last two have not been anywhere near par for our group," Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan said. "So it was nice to see us return to the way we can play."
Patrick Marleau started off the scoring for the home team early in the first period for his sixth of the postseason. Vancouver gave two power play opportunities to the opposition which later on became something they would regret doing as Marleau took advantage
of the first and Ryane Clowe capitalised on the second nearly midway through. The Sharks looked like a totally different team which showed that they had learned from their previous two losses. They took advantage of quick power plays which was something that
they had not done previously. In addition, they took the first 15 of 16 shots at the net which had the Canucks skirmishing all over the place for the puck.
Roberto Luongo and home-goalie, Antti Niemi, managed to lockdown the opposing offensive attackers during the second period and made 34 of 38 and 27 of 30 saves respectfully.
Alex Burrows countered back in the final period and put Vancouver up on the boards scoring in the opening two minutes. Dan Boyle scored the insuring goal for the Sharks five minutes later on another power play which would later become immensely important.
Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa both took advantage of a major penalty committed by Jamie McGinn who was sent out for 15 minutes at the 11:22 mark for with fighting Aaron Rome. This put the sell-out crowd in a state of shock and gave Vancouver two goals, just
down by one with four minutes remaining.
Luckily, the San Jose defensemen came into form and did not allow any further shots at the net. Had Boyle not scored, the match would have definitely been forced into an uncertain overtime which Vancouver is great at tackling.
San Jose has worked hard to reach where they are today but so has Vancouver. Game four will be a deciding match for both teams and is scheduled to start on Sunday.
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