Vancouver Canucks edge past San Jose Sharks 4-3
Alexandre Burrows scored the winner goal in the third period to give the Vancouver Canucks a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Monday night. This was Vancouver’s first win in San Jose since April 2007.
Canucks Winger Daniel Sedin told reporters after the game, “It means a lot to this group to come down here and get a win. We’ve played a lot of good games here and haven’t come up with a win.”
Burrows and Sedin scored a goal each and had an assist, while Alexander Edler and Jannik Hansen also got on the score sheet for the Canucks. Cory Schneider turned aside 32 of 35 shots for Vancouver, who has won six consecutive games and is 15-1-2 over their
past 18 play-offs.
“We weren’t happy with the first two games of our trip,” Schneider said. “We were back on our heels a little bit. We addressed it and guys were determined to get back to our game.”
Jamal Mayers and Patrick Marleau both scored a goal each for San Jose, who have won their last two play-off games. Ryane Clowe also added a goal for the sharks, while Antti Niemi turned aside 43-of-47 shots as the Sharks fell to 0-2 this season against Vancouver.
Sedin’s scored his 21st goal of the year and opened the scoring for Vancouver to give 1-0 lead in the sixth minute of the first period, when he received a pass from Henrik Sedin and tipped the puck over Niemi’s glove.
Clowe tied it 1-1 for San Jose at the start of the second period. He received a pass from Jason Demers and tapped the puck home. After three minutes, Edler made it 2-1 on the power play to put Vancouver on top again, as he beat Niemi with a one-timer from
the right circle.
“I didn’t get some of the rebounds,” Niemi said. “Goalies like to face a lot of shots. It didn’t feel like that many.”
The Sharks again tied the game at 2-2 just four minutes later, when Dany Heatley downed a one-timer from Dan Boyle and fed it to the left, where Marleau chipped it home for his fourth goal in six games. San Jose got their first lead of the game at 3-2 with
less than five minutes remaining in the second period. Mayers went past Schneider and snapped a wrist shot, as the goalie fell to the ice.
Vancouver however, levelled the game at 3-3 with over a minute to play in the second period. Ryan Kesler snapped a wrist shot from the outside left circle and it was stopped, but Hansen was on the doorstep to redirect the rebound.
Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said, “In all areas of the game I thought we played our best game of the three (recent road games). It was a tough grind out there for both teams and we were able to get it done.”
With the score tied in the final period, the Canucks scored the decisive goal in the ninth minute to lead 4-3. Christian Erhoff got the puck at the right point and fired a long shot on net that was going wide, but got knocked down. Burrows then redirected
Ehrhoff’s shot off Niemi’s pads and slammed the puck into an open net.
“It feels good but it seems like we’re never satisfied,” Burrows said. “Whatever happened in the past we forget about it and move on. That seems to work well for us.”
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