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Sharks playoff chances looking grimmer after loss in LA |
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The Sharks tired as this game went on in a 5-2 loss against their division rivals the LA Kings. With an empty net goal the Kings moved into a playoff spot in the Western conference and the Sharks are on the outside looking in.
Thirty hours ago the Sharks were getting ready to face the Ducks and an opportunity to vault themselves into first place in the Pacific division and third in the West with two games in as many nights. Instead they gave up five goals two nights in a row and left four points out there. They find themselves in 10th place with LA, Phoenix, Colorado, and Calgary for a playoff spot. To make matters worse every team just mentioned recorded at least one point in their games on Tuesday night.
You can call it puck luck or whatever you want but the Sharks have had a tough time creating their breaks. No the bounces haven’t been kind but those are things that teams turn around themselves by working hard and by working smart. It looked as though San Jose were in the midst of changing their luck after the Detroit win but from what we’ve seen the last two nights the Sharks have a pretty steep hill to climb.
It wasn’t all bad for San Jose they can take some positives away from this game. Martin Havlat continues to show the skill he possesses. Ryane Clowe’s play has been good and his chemistry with Havlat has produced for the Sharks.
Niemi looked much better tonight until the latter stage of the game, however after Monday’s outing this game was a good bounce back performance.
The numbers heavily favored the Kings Tuesday. They outshot the Sharks 42-22, the Sharks were destroyed in the face-off circle as they were down 26-9 after two periods, and the one on one battles weren’t recorded but San Jose came up short in that category as well.
The coach was asked if the shots were indicative of how this game turned out or if it was a misleading stat “I think with the power plays, when you go that long with a 5 on 3 and a 4 on 3; but at the end of the night it’s the chances that probably count and they had more chances than we did no doubt about it, give them full marks we were second place tonight.”
Scoring Details
1st Period
LA – 15:26 –SH – 10 M.Richards(16) – assist – 33 W.Mitchell(14)
SJ – 15:48 –PP – 9 M.Havlat(6) – assist – 88 B.Burns(25)
2nd Period
LA – 15:49 –EV – 27 A.Martinez(4) – assists – 11 A.Kopitar(40), 14 J.Williams(34)
3rd Period
LA – 4:00 –PP – 11 A.Kopitar(24) – assists – 10 M.Richards(22), 23 D.Brown(28)
SJ – 6:56 –EV – 22 D.Boyle(7) – assists – 39 L.Couture(28), 9 M.Havlat(15)
LA – 15:54 –EV – 25 D.Penner(7) – assist – 26 S.Voynov(11)
LA – 19:44 –EV-EN – 77 J.Carter(21) – assists – 10 M.Richards(23), 11 A.Kopitar(41)
The turning point in this game was the Dustin Penner goal that came with just over four minutes left in the third. It was a one goal game prior to that and the Sharks were coming on and had the momentum in their favor.
Contenders & Pretenders
Contenders
Anze Kopitar – is an easy choice for the first contender of the night with the game winning goal and two assists. He was all over the ice all night and didn’t stop creating.
Mike Richards – got his team going with a short-handed goal and added a couple of helpers as well.
Pretenders
Torrey Mitchell – was the poster boy for what went wrong for the Sharks tonight. Alec Martinez was Mitchell’s man on the second goal when he snuck in from the point. Mitchell also got the penalty roll started for the Sharks with a double minor that was unnecessary. It was what we call a bad penalty because he went for Willie Mitchell’s stick ten feet before he should have, even if he got his stick the Kings defenseman would have gotten it back into position by the time he got to the puck anyway.
Antti Niemi – played pretty well until the Dustin Penner goal, which happened to be the turning point in this game. That goal went in from a bad angle and snuck under the pad. He has to make that stop, that goal wasted what was a decent outing by Niemi up until that point.
Patrick Marleau – was minus three again and a non-factor for the Sharks. His line mates Havlat and Clowe are going but no sign of Patty. He needs to get going or he will find himself a regular on the pretender’s list.
Dan Boyle – also hits the list for his game Tuesday. He looked slow right from the get go and lost more puck battles than he won. The big youthful legs of the Kings forwards gave him a hard time. He is on this list regardless of one of the prettiest goals we have seen from the Sharks.
The Sharks return home to face the Boston Bruins Thursday night in what will be their last non-divisional game of the regular season.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Cam Gore
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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