Vancouver Canucks deny San Jose Sharks fifth in a row, get fourth 3-2 -NHL Update
Vancouver knew when they were facing a slump and heavy criticism for their weak performance when the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season kicked off, but they knew that they would eventually bounce back, which looks like they have as the
Canucks denied San Jose Sharks a fifth straight victory, 3-2, for their fourth in a row, on Saturday, November 26, 2011, at the sold-out HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, United States.
"'We were kind of waiting for this to happen," Vancouver Canucks forward, Daniel Sedin, said. "We have a good team. We know if we play the right way, how good we can be. It was a matter of time until we turned the corner and we have now."
The Canucks are off to a strong performance which started against the Ottawa Senators in a 2-1 overtime victory, which eventually evolved into two straight shutouts of the Colorado Avalanche and Phoenix Coyotes in the two following matchups and finally now
against the San Jose Sharks.
Manny Malhotra potted his second goal in three nights nearly midway through the opening period to put Vancouver ahead by one, which was followed by an equaliser by San Jose’s, Andrew Murray, for his first of the season nearly 10 minutes later.
Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin followed up by taking advantage of a power play opportunity midway through the second period with San Jose missing Joe Thornton due to a minor penalty for slashing.
Andrew Alberts made the crucial extension in the lead by scoring another Vancouver goal nearly a minute later, which was the game-winner after Patrick Marleau scored another for San Jose with less than two minutes to go in the third.
Despite the loss, San Jose’s head coach, Todd McLellan, was happy about his teams’ performance on the ice with a tough team.
"It's probably the best game we've played in the last five and it's the one we happened to lose," coach, Todd McLellan, said. "There are some things that showed up in tonight's game that we've been working on the last couple days."
Vancouver hope to end off the month with a fifth straight win against the struggling Columbus Blues Jackets on Tuesday while San Jose has the next against their state rivals, the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.
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