San Jose Sharks looking for better results against Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference Finals
San Jose Sharks has been hurt a lot by poor performances in the final period of five of its last six games.
There has only been one occasion where it has managed to get away with it but otherwise it has been on the losing end.
We talk about the performance of Sharks in the semifinal against Detroit Red Wings and then Vancouver Canucks in the Finals then it has lost four out of its last five games.
"We haven't had good third periods. That's something we had planned, but we need to get better in that area", said Devin Setoguchi. "We need to get better during the push late in the games that, as Todd (McLellan) would say, 'be on our toes not on our heels',
and push back, instead of being pushed around".
The fourth game of the semifinal series witnessed Sharks coming back from a 3-0 deficit to level the scores.
However, with the equalising goal scored at the start of the final period, it was unable to hold on to the game that resulted in Red Wings scoring to win the game.
Game 5 saw Sharks facing a similar scenario where it was leading by 3-1 as the final period started, but Red Wings took advantage of the totally different and weak Sharks’ defence that was strong in the first two periods. Red Wings scored three goals to
come up with an amazing 4-3 win.
Once again San Jose was in the lead in the sixth game with Logan Couture providing the break through. However, it was unable to hold onto the lead that resulted in Red Wings winning the game by 3-1 in the end to take the series into the seventh game.
Sharks was presented with a number of strategies before the series against Vancouver Canucks. Canucks was not only the winners of the President’s Trophy but the first game of the series was going to be played at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
Sharks was hoping that it could forget the past and move on. It made a positive start and was in a comfortable lead of 2-1 at the start of the final period.
However, once again it was unable to hold onto the lead and gave away two goals to lose the game.
The goals were scored by Kevin Bieksa and Henrik Sedin, marking another day when Sharks lost the game in the final period.
"The other night it didn't look like we had legs. We weren't executing. I mean, give them credit -- they did a good job, they were skating and we weren't", Setoguchi said.
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