San Jose Sharks defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2
The meeting on Wednesday 24 November between the San Jose Sharks and the Chicago Blackhawks was the first game between the teams since the Blackhawks swept the Sharks in the 2010 playoffs.
Wednesday’s game had a better result for the Sharks, as they defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks by a score of 5-2.
The Sharks started goaltender Antti Niemi, a member of Chicago's champion team that signed with the Sharks in the off-season.
In net for the ‘Hawks was Marty Turco. Turco, was an unrestricted free agent when he signed a one-year $1.3m
deal to be Chicago’s starting goaltender, replacing Niemi.
San Jose’s Dany Heatley got the scoring started at the 13:24 mark of the first period. The Sharks’ Joe Thornton took the puck behind the net and had Turco out of position when he passed
to Heatley who fired a wrist shot into the wide open net to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead.
Jamal Mayers would put San Jose ahead 2-0 early in the second period. The scoring play started behind the net when the puck bounced off the referee’s skate and the Sharks John McCarthy
corralled it. McCarthy then passed the puck to Mayers who wasted no time firing a shot past Turco on his stick side.
Chicago was able to get within one goal at the 3:08 mark of the second period with a goal from Jake Dowell. Dowell used a backhand from the side of the net to score Chicago’s first goal
of the game.
The Sharks would take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission after Joe Pavelski added a power play marker with less than five minutes left in the period.
Patrick Sharp would score for the Hawks early in the third period with an impressive deflection. Chicago defenceman Nick Boynton fired a shot from near the blue line and Sharp, as he glided
backwards through the Sharks’ zone, got his stick blade on the puck and tipped it past Niemi. Sharp’s 13th goal of the season put the score at 3-2.
The score would remain 3-2 until 13:47 into the final period when Patrick Marleau scored on the power play for the Sharks. Marleau had just come off the San Jose bench when Joe Thorton
passed him the puck. Marleau skated into the Chicago zone, going wide around ‘Hawks defenceman Jassen Cullimore and putting a wrist shot behind Turco for a 4-2 San Jose lead.
Marleau would add an empty net goal with three seconds remaining to give the Sharks the 5-2 victory in front of the sell out crowd of 17,562 at the HP Pavilion.
After the game, Sharks head coach Todd McClellan was pleased with his team’s performance, telling NHL.com, “I think we played a more complete game than we've played in a while.”
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