Sharks Win! (Finally)

Finally, the Sharks won, though they sure didn't make it easy on themselves. I recorded the game since I had to work past the 4 p.m. pst starting time. I got home with less than an hour left on the recording to go, but resisted the urge to watch the last 30 minutes. Finally, I sat down to watch the TSN (Centre Ice) telecast.

The game had a nice flow to it as the commentators continuously remarked upon throughout the broadcast. They had been in Washington for three days so many of the comments were about the Caps and Ovechkin. And, after the Sharks went down by 2 goals in the middle of the 2nd, it seemed like much would be said about the Caps. The breakdown by the D from clearing the puck from our zone allowed those goals, but it seemed they got their act together eventually.

For once, the Sharks gritted it out, helped a lot by the hard-hitting play of Bernier, Murray, and McClaren. Grier got things going when the Caps D helped out by taking out one of their own players, resulting in SJ getting a 3-on-1 opportunity and actually cashing in on it thanks to a great pass from Grier to Rissmiller.

Hannon shutdown Ovechkin for most of the game, not allowing him many scoring or even shooting opportunities. ( I can't recall if he was on the ice when AO finally got a shot on goal in the 3rd). Carle was able to cash in on a 3rd rebound attempt as Cheechoo wacked away at the goalies pads, tying the game up. A later penalty gave the Caps a chance to win the game during a power play but Nabby and the PK did a great job of preventing this.

We went to OT and still, Nabby didn't crack. Unfortunately, neither did Johnson, so to the shoot-out we would go. The only positive was the Caps were 1-7 on the year in shootouts. Of course the Sharks were 0-1 (and sucked last year too). But, Coach Wilson was laughing as he handed the shootout sheet to the refs, giving Clowe, Pavelski, and Cheechoo the opportunity to win the game. Nabby let in the first goal, did a great poke-check on Ovechkin to prevent the 2nd and cut off the corner for to prevent the 3rd attempt (with some assistance by the post). Meanwhile, Clowe missed, but Pavelski and Cheechoo put it in, giving Cheech the gamewinning goal. The team then mobbed Nabby who finally had a shoot-out win.

It was the first time in a long time that I'd seen Hannan play some great defensive hockey. It was the first time in a long time that I saw a Sharks team that didn't give up when they couldn't seem to put a puck past the netminder. It was the first time in a long time that saw a team with some grit put it to use, banging their bodies around on the forecheck and controlling the puck in the offensive zone. There is still work to be done - the TSN commentators mentioned several times about Sharks players yelling at each other in confusion on the bench and the D had some problems figuring out their changes. But hopefully this win, along with the return of some needed players, will help bring this team back together.