NHL - Sharks Round Up - March 02-11, 2017

Vancouver Canucks @ Sharks 1-3 - Thursday, March 02, 2017

Marcus Sorensen scored his first NHL goal, and Logan Couture had a goal and an assist to help the San Jose Sharks defeat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 at SAP Center. Mikkel Boedker also scored, and Aaron Dell made 17 saves for the Sharks (38-18-7), who won their third straight game and ended Vancouver's six-game winning streak in San Jose. San Jose leads the Edmonton Oilers by seven points and the Anaheim Ducks by nine for first place in the Pacific Division. Sharks center Joe Thornton remains one assist shy of 1,000 for his NHL career. Bo Horvat scored, and Ryan Miller made 29 saves for the Canucks (26-30-7), who lost their fourth straight game (0-3-1). Horvat gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 7:38 of the first period when he scored on the power play.

The goal, his 19th, gave him an NHL career-high 41 points, surpassing the 40 he had in 2015-16. Boedker made it 1-1 at 15:45 of the first with his eighth goal. He beat Miller from the right faceoff circle with a shot that deflected off Canucks defenseman Luca Sbisa's stick into the left corner of the net. Couture got the primary assist after winning a battle for the puck and sending a cross-ice pass to Boedker while under pressure. Sorensen put San Jose ahead 2-1 at 9:28 of the second period, beating Miller with a wrist shot from close range. Couture increased the Sharks lead to 3-1 at 13:49 of the second when he scored from the right circle. Patrick Marleau and Brent Burns had the assists. San Jose defenseman David Schlemko left the game late in the first period with an undisclosed injury.

* Sorensen blocked a shot to start a sequence that led to his first NHL goal. The rookie controlled a short pass from Tomas Hertl with his right skate and beat Miller from the bottom of the left circle with a wrist shot inside the left post. "I didn't see it go in at first," Sorensen said. "I saw Hertl was celebrating. It was a dream."

* With 13:13 left to play, Vancouver's Markus Granlund had a great chance to score a shorthanded goal on an odd-man rush, but Dell, in his 11th start of the season, made a blocker save to preserve San Jose's two-goal lead. "Not a lot of work," Dell said. "Those are the harder [games] to play. I think we did a really good job. We didn't give them a lot of chances. We really shut down their top guys tonight."

* Forward Sven Baertschi had an assist, two hits and three blocked shots in 16:59 in his return to the Canucks lineup after missing nine games with a concussion.

* Couture took a pass from Marleau and lifted a shot from the right circle over Miller's glove to give San Jose a two-goal lead.
* Tanev (mumps) and center Michael Chaput (mumps symptoms) returned to the Canucks lineup after missing two games. .. Forward Joseph Cramarossa, claimed off waivers from Anaheim on Wednesday, made his Vancouver debut and played 6:26. ... Canucks defenseman Alex Biega was a late scratch because of an illness. Philip Larsen took his place. ... The Sharks are 3-0-0 against the Canucks.

"We're stringing games together. I think in the past couple seasons, these games that we should be taking advantage of and should be winning, maybe we're taking our foot off the gas or not necessarily getting the job done. But we're finding ways. For us, we're understanding the importance of every point, and I think we saw with home ice how important that was last year in the playoffs. Just going down the stretch here, we want to take advantage if we can." Brenden Dillon said.
"It was a great shift by our line. We were cycling. I was trying to crash the net." said Sorensen, who played his fourth NHL game.
"We're deep. That's all you ask for going into the end of the year and a playoff run. You need a lot of guys to step up, and you never know what's going to happen going forward. Injuries happen in this game, unfortunately. There are times in different games where we need different ingredients, and I think with the group of guys that we have here, the 23-25 guys that we have, we're looking pretty good." Logan Couture said.

Sharks @ Wild 1-3 - Sunday, March 05, 2017
Eric Staal scored two goals and the Minnesota Wild regained possession of first place in the Central Division and Western Conference with a 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at Xcel Energy Center. Minnesota (42-15-6) has a one-point lead on the Chicago Blackhawks atop the Central with two games in hand. Devan Dubnyk, whose .933 save percentage and 35 wins leads the NHL, made 20 saves. Martin Jones made 25 saves for San Jose (38-19-7), which had won three in a row and an eight-game point streak. Zach Parise returned after missing three games because of the mumps and scored on the power play at 11:06 of the first period. Minnesota has 16 power-play goals in the past 16 games and leads the NHL with 30.7 power-play percentage at home. Staal made it 2-0 at 15:24 of the first. Melker Karlsson got San Jose on the board with 1:34 remaining in the first period. Micheal Haley passed up to Karlsson in the slot for a redirection past Dubnyk to make it 2-1. Staal scored an empty-net goal at 18:11 of the third period.

* Parise positioned himself in front of Jones and redirected a shot by Jason Pominville, who also missed three games because of the mumps, for the early goal. Parise has seven goals in his past 12 games. "I felt good," Parise said. "I felt like I had a lot of energy. I didn't really know which way it was going to go after having basically 10 days off."

* Jones got a leg out to make a pad save on a Mikael Granlund's breakaway 4:24 into the third period.

* Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon led Parise on the breakaway at 6:53 of the second period and started another breakaway with Granlund in the third. He finished plus-one in 24:42 of ice time.

* Wild defenseman Matt Dumba fed Staal with a no-look backhand pass for the 2-0 lead.
* Jannik Hansen, who was acquired by the Sharks from the Vancouver Canucks prior to the NHL Trade Deadline, is still awaiting his visa and did not play. … Sharks center Joe Thornton remains one assist shy of 1,000 in his NHL career. … Wild defenseman Christian Folin left the game at 9:49 of the first period and didn't return after a hit into the boards by Kevin Lebanc. Boudreau said his status is to be determined. "It didn't look good," Boudreau said. "I'm sure we'll know more [Monday]." … Pominville has at least one point in 15 of his past 17 games.

"There wasn't much space out there. We had our power plays, we didn't get a lot done and we had some chances. Our penalty kill was real solid. We gave ourselves a chance to win and we just got caught making a few too many plays. With their structure that they have, you've got to just stay patient, keep laying it in, forechecking and better break something open that way. If you do that, hopefully you can get a few more pucks to the net and you need that kind of traffic around there." Joe Pavelski said.
"It was a hard-fought game. We knew it would be a tough game in here. They came as advertised, they're very good, and we were not as good as them. So it was the proper result." Pete DeBoer said.

Washington Capitals @ Sharks 2-4 - Thursday, March 09, 2017
Logan Couture scored two power-play goals, Brent Burns had a season-high three assists, and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Washington Capitals 4-2 at SAP Center. Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski also scored for the Sharks (40-19-7), who improved to 22-1-2 in their past 25 games against Washington. The Sharks were tied for 23rd in the NHL on the power play entering the game but went 2-for-5 with the man-advantage. They almost had another but Pavelski scored a second after a four-minute double-minor ended. San Jose killed all five of Washington's power plays. Forward Jannik Hansen had an assist in his first game for the Sharks, who acquired him from the Vancouver Canucks on Feb.
28, and Martin Jones made 25 saves.

The Sharks remained seven points ahead of the Anaheim Ducks for first place in the Pacific Division. Daniel Winnik and Brett Connolly scored for Washington (44-15-7), and Braden Holtby made 20 saves. Washington lost its second straight game but remained five points in front of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Sharks moved ahead 3-2 on Couture's power-play goal on a rebound at 18:04 of the second period. Holtby made a glove save of Burns' shot from the point but couldn't control the rebound, and Couture elevated a shot from the left circle to the far side. Couture made it 4-2 at 8:05 of the third period. Winnik gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 5:26 of the first period with his ninth goal of the season.

Thornton made it 1-1 at 8:43 with his sixth goal. Hansen sent a pass from below the goal line to Thornton, who scored from the left circle. The Sharks took a 2-1 lead when Pavelski scored at 2:32 of the second period. Connolly scored from close range on a give-and-go with Kevin Shattenkirk at 14:40 to make it 2-2.

* Pavelski tipped Burns' point shot backward through his own legs and beat Holtby through the 5-hole for his 24th goal of the season.

* Jones made a right-pad save at 16:27 of the first period on Evgeny Kuznetsov's backhand from close range.

* Capitals fourth-line forward Tom Wilson had a game-high eight hits and had an assist in 15:01.

* Couture skated in front of the crease and deflected Burns' shot from the point past Holtby for his second goal of the game and 23rd of the season.

* Sharks center Joe Thornton, who had his 1,000th NHL assist against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, was honored during a pregame ceremony. ... Capitals forward Andre Burakovsky (hand) missed his 11th straight game. ... Sharks defenseman David Schlemko (lower body) missed his third straight game.

"Sometimes you get a team's number for a little bit. Right now we've played these guys hard, I think, is one thing. We've played solid games against them. For whatever reason we've found wins. You've got to play these teams like that. They're good measuring sticks." Joe Pavelski said.
"Two good teams going at it. I thought our special teams won us the game. We haven't had many of those recently so it was nice. Guys have been putting in a lot of work at it, coaches and players. It was nice to get rewarded for that."
"I loved him [Jannik Hansen]. I like that he came as advertised. Energy, speed. He's going to really help our penalty kill. I thought he fit in real good with Joe [Thornton] and Joe [Pavelski]. He plays a man's game out there. He's really going to help." Peter DeBoer said.
"It felt good. Not just that we scored. It felt like we were going to score before the power play even started. We kind of felt that intensity throughout the group, and it showed tonight." Couture said.

Nashville Predators @ Sharks 3-1 - Saturday, March 11, 2017
Juuse Saros made 25 saves to help the Nashville Predators end a four-game losing streak with a 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday at SAP Center. Ryan Johansen, James Neal and Viktor Arvidsson scored for the Predators (33-24-11), who are third in the Central Division. Paul Martin scored, and Martin Jones made 22 saves for the Sharks (40-20-7), who are seven points ahead of the Anaheim Ducks for first place in the Pacific Division. The Predators lost at the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in a shootout on Tuesday and at the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in overtime. The Sharks took a 1-0 lead at 6:18 of the first period on Martin's fourth goal of the season. Joe Thornton won a faceoff against Mike Fisher in the left circle, and Martin beat Saros with a slap shot to the far side with Jannik Hansen providing a screen. Johansen made it 1-1 at 12:10 when he scored from the left circle. The Predators took a 2-1 lead at 10:08 of the second period when Neal scored his 19th goal, ending a 10-game drought. Colin Wilson passed from below the goal line to Neal, who beat Jones from close range. The goal was Neal's second in two games at San Jose this season. Arvidsson scored a shorthanded, empty-net goal with 1:02 left in the third period.

* Johansen got to a loose puck in the left circle, skated to his right and scored on a snap shot.

* Saros made a left-pad save on Patrick Marleau's backhand from the low slot 34 seconds into the third period.

* The Predators killed all four penalties against the Sharks after giving up three goals on three opportunities to the Kings.

"It was a great penalty kill," Neal said. "They have a great power play. To hold them off the score sheet gives us a chance to win and that's what happened."
* Wilson stripped the puck from Sharks defenseman Dylan DeMelo then made a quick pass from the end boards in front to Neal, who scored the game-winner.
* Forward PA Parenteau made his Predators debut, 10 days after being acquired in a trade with the New Jersey Devils. He missed four games with a finger injury. ... Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis returned to the lineup after missing his second game of three with a lower-body injury. ... Predators forward Vernon Fiddler (lower body) missed his second straight game. ... Sharks defenseman David Schlemko (lower body) missed his fourth straight game and is day to day.

"I liked our first period. And then we stopped playing, stopped following the formula. We came out in the second and tried to turn it into a track meet. It came back to bite us. These are desperate teams we are playing. We have to get our desperation level to an equivalent spot." Peter DeBoer said.
"We had a few breakdowns in the second where we got caught trading chances. It was one of those games where you wonder why you don't get a couple more goals. It felt like we were in their end the whole time." Joe Pavelski