San Jose Sharks sneak past Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 – NHL Play-off Finals Recap
Patrick Marleau lit the lamp twice in the opening frame and goal-tender, Antti Niemi, made 27 saves, as the San Jose Sharks snuck past Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 in Game 3 of their Western Conference Finals on Friday, May 20.
Marleau also assisted on the Dan Boyle’s ultimate game-winning goal in the final stanza, while Joe Thornton had three helpers for San Jose, which reduced its series deficit to 2-1 after losing the first two contests in Vancouver. Ryane Clowe also posted
a goal in the opening stanza for the victors.
The Sharks will try to tie the series at 2-2 in Game 4, which is scheduled for Sunday.
The Sharks' Head Coach, Todd McLellan, was pleased with his side’s performance. He said, "We were much better in all areas of the game than we were in Vancouver. We skated hard and came out with an intensity I haven't seen in a while from this team.
We'll see if we can replicate that on Sunday afternoon."
Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa both scored third-period goals while Alexandre Burrows also tallied a goal for Vancouver, which had won its previous three road contests in the play-off series. Goalie Roberto Luongo allowed all four goals on 38 shots in
the defeat.
The Sharks, who went 3-for-10 on the power play in the contest, notched two goals on the man advantage in the opening frame.
The first goal occurred when Marleau redirected a pass from Thornton past Niemi in the fourth minute of the first period.
Less than five minutes later, the Sharks doubled their advantage when Christian Ehrhoff banged home his own rebound for his fifth goal of the play-offs.
San Jose then pushed its lead to three goals with less than three minutes remaining in the first stanza, when Marleau crashed the net with the puck on a break-away.
Niemi's best frame of the contest came in the second when he turned aside all 13 shots he faced.
Niemi said after the game, "Well, I think we had a really compact three guys there and we wanted to keep them outside, we did a pretty good job on that.”
After scoreless middle frame, Vancouver cut its gap to 3-1 in the second minute of the third period. The goal came when Niemi tried to clear the puck from his zone, but it hit off the skate of his team-mate and finally came out to slot where Burrows
tipped it in.
Skating on a 5-on-3 advantage, the Sharks scored the game-deciding goal at the 6:46 mark, when Boyle took a feed from Marleau and blasted a shot from the top of the left circle past Luongo for a 4-1 lead.
However, Vancouver went on a power-play with less than nine minutes remaining in the contest when Jamie McGinn took a boarding penalty for the Sharks.
The Canucks trimmed their deficit to 4-2 on the power-play with less than seven minutes left, when Henrik Sedin centred a pass to Hamhuis, who used a one-timer to beat Niemi.
Still into the power-play, the Canucks pulled within 4-3 with less than four minutes to go when Bieksa sent a shot toward the net that hit off Ian White’s stick and got past Niemi.
However, the Canucks could not find an equaliser, as San Jose played solid defence to maintain its one-goal edge.
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