Not even another slow start can slow down the San Jose Sharks these days.
For the second time in five days, the Sharks had to rally in the third period to beat the Vancouver Canucks. Trailing 2-1 entering the third, San Jose was saved by early goals from Brent Burns and Patrick Marleau to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.
Martin Jones was solid again in the win. Jones made 25 stops and improved his overall record to 32-17-4. James Reimer was his back up and should be ready to go when the Sharks face the Canucks again on Saturday at the Shark Tank.
The win all but buries the Canucks and their playoff chances. Vancouver is now 16 point behind the Sharks in the Pacific and trail the final wild card spot by ten points. But you didn't come here to read about that.
With the win the Sharks keep pace with the Kings and Ducks... both rivals won last night. San Jose (35-22-6) has 76 points. Anaheim (36-19-8) and L.A. (38-21-4) each have 80 points. All three teams have 19 games left to play. It really is going to come down to the wire.
I am more than geeked about the Pacific Division race and you should be too. Having all the California teams be this competitive is great for our state and good for the sport in general. We need to have some California hockey pride. The game has exploded in our area and I couldn't be prouder.
But I digress....
San Jose's depth is the reason they are where they are today and it showed again last night. Six different Sharks had points in the win. Not a bad way to follow up the win against Montreal in which 10 players had at least one point in the game.
GM's crave depth like the Sharks have. That's why they often throw away draft picks for deadline rentals.
San Jose has put together three consecutive victories following that little 1-2-1 rough patch in late February.
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Some Notes:
- Patrick Marleau scored his 19th goal of the season. When he gets his next one it will mark the 13th time in 18 NHL seasons that he's scored at least 20 goals. One more thing, Marleau (475g) is exactly 25 goals away from #500.
- Brent Burns game-tying goal was his 22nd of the year tying his career high from 2013-14. Burns needs five more points to set a new career high in points as well.
- Tomas Hertl scored the Sharks first goal of the game. It was his 16th of the season, eclipsing his career-high of 15 he notched in 2013-14. He hit the 16 goal mark in game 62. He scored those 15 goals in just 37 games. Still a career high though.
- The Sharks need five more wins to reach 40 for the season. If it happens, it will mark the third time Pete Deboer has led a team to at least 40 wins in his first year behind the bench. He had 41 in his first year with the Panthers in 08-09. He had 48 in his first year with the Devils in 11-12 and now in his first year with the Sharks he will finish with...? Keep in mind though neither of those teams cracked wins again with Deboer behind the bench. In fact, Only the Devils hit the 35-win mark again.
Chew on that for a bit.
thanks for reading, Steve