The Sharks improved their home record to 13-1-4 at the Shark Tank with a win over the visiting Minnesota Wild. San Jose came out flying again and dominated the first period in their 4-2 win.
A key part of the success for the Sharks lately has been scoring the first goal which they did again Wednesday night. They scored the first two in the opening period which got them off to a great start and set the tone for the game.
Brent Burns the former Wild player created the first goal with a great fore check. After Burns checked Charlie Coyle off the puck he left it for Joe Thornton behind the goal line. Thornton found Martin Havlat streaking in and fed him a great pass which he buried past Niklas Backstrom less than two minutes into the game.
The Sharks next goal will be shown many times over as it will be a candidate for goal of the year. The Sharks had a two man advantage when Dan Boyle made it 2-0 but the other players on the ice were spectators on this one. Boyle went end to end and deked Ryan Suter out of his jock at the blue line before he turned Backstrom inside out and fed the empty net.
"I was just going to drop it by the redline and then I just changed my mind. I'm glad I did. I've had some good rushes, probably more so in Tampa [when I played for the Lightning]. My finish hasn't been so good lately. I've had a lot of highlight rushes, but I never seem to finish with the goal" was how Dan Boyle described his highlight reel goal.
Special teams played a pretty big role for the Sharks Wednesday night. The Sharks potted two goals with the man advantage and only gave up one power play opportunity the other way.
"We talk about checking, using our legs, and not reaching in with sticks” commented Coach McLellan after the game.
“Penalty killing can be very taxing on individuals. It can eat up a lot of minutes. We have been able to avoid that by distributing our minutes out appropriately, and coming up with some wins."
T.J Galiardi lit the lamp for the Sharks on the power play which means the second unit scored. The depth scoring that was holding the Sharks back earlier this season has shown up on this six game win streak and can be directly attributed to the team’s success.
The game took on a tone of nastiness when it was out of hand for the Wild. Without Ryane Clowe and the newest Shark Raffi Torres out of the line-up to keep the Wild enforcers honest the hitting was ramped up as was the after the whistle scrums.
As the final buzzer went Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Dany Heatley mixed things up and Heatley went off holding his shoulder. He was unavailable to the press after the game.
There is quite the San Jose Minnesota connection as far as players go. The Wild and the Sharks traded some pretty big names two summers ago and it was two former Sharks who tied things up at two for the Wild.
Charlie Coyle was the Sharks first round draft pick who was part of the Brent Burns trade and he got things started for the Wild on a two on two break. The Wild’s Zach Parise did all the work taking the puck hard to the net and Coyle tapped in the loose puck to put the Wild on the board.
Dany Heatley heard a chorus of boos when he slapped one home from the left point just 0:25 seconds later to tie things at 2 apiece.
The other connections for the Wild are Devin Setoguchi and Torrey Mitchell. Martin Havlat, Brent Burns and James Sheppard are current Sharks who are former Minnesota players.
The turning point in this game was Martin Havlat’s goal 1:34 into the game. I know that the Wild ties things up at two in the second but when the Sharks score first it instills great confidence into the team as a whole.
Contenders & Pretenders
Contenders
Martin Havlat – has been absent from the Contender’s list for quite some time but tonight he deserves to be recognized. Havlat opened the scoring less than two minutes in and his assist on Galiardi’s goal was a good heads up quick thinking play.
Joe Pavelski – didn’t score any goals or add any assists but he was a real solid player for the Sharks doing the little things that help win hockey games. Pavs was 65% in the face-off circle, he had four takeaways, and three blocked shots.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – was quietly great tonight against the Wild. He got under the skin of Heatley who has become public enemy number one after underachieving as a Shark. He was a force in front of his own net all the while playing against Minnesota’s top line.
Pretenders
Justin Falk – is a pretender for a casual clearing attempt that led to the game winning goal.
Coach Mike Yeo – makes the list for dressing two heavy weight enforcers when the Sharks dressed none. One would have been plenty. Perhaps some more speed or skill would have been the answer. He also made the press wait for twenty minutes only to answer one question afterwards. Whaa coach whaa.
The Sharks continue their home stand Friday night when the flailing Calgary Flames come to town.
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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