Sharks Defeat Ducks in Anaheim Season Opener 4-1

The San Jose Sharks hoped with the acquisition of Dany Heatley, they could finally solve their postseason woes. Heatley looked much better in San Jose's first game against their interstate rival Anaheim, and a couple of nice passes helped the Sharks defeat the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last year 4-1.

The nastiness got started early with 4 power plays split between both teams in the first 5 minutes, as newcomers for both teams got a sense early of what this rivalry was about. But it was a combination of 3 rookies that got the scoring done first, as Benn Ferriero got the Sharks up 1-0 with his first NHL goal, assisted by Jason Demers and Frazer McLaren. The Sharks took two late penalties in the first period, but in a twist of fate, it helped them break away from the pressing offense of the Ducks, as Patrick Marleau outskated Ryan Whitney and made a quick backhanded shot to beat Jonas Hiller for already his third goal of the season, his first shorthanded. Then seconds after Dany Heatley stepped out of the penalty box for a tripping penalty, he found Joe Thornton on a 2 on 1 break, opting to pass to Thornton instead of his normal slapshot, and Thornton made a similar backhand move to beat Hiller again to give the Sharks a 3-0 lead late in the first period.
The offense continued to be much more one-sided for the Sharks in the second, but only one goal was converted. The Sharks outshot the Ducks 17-2 in the second period, not allowing a shot on goal until the dying seconds of a late Anaheim power play with only 2 minutes to go in the period. But it was Devin Setoguchi with the lone goal in the second period, as he got a nice feed from Heatley during the power play, taking the pass in stride as he crashed the net and wristed it to the far side to make the lead 4-0.
In the third, the Ducks finally cracked the San Jose defense. Anaheim outshot San Jose 16-8, and converted on a power play opportunity, as Ryan Getzlaf made a perfect pass to set up a one timer from Ryan Whitney at the blue line, who beat Nabokov cleanly with a high shot to bring the Ducks within 3 with 10 minutes to go. But Anaheim took a couple of penalties in the last half of the third, preventing themselves of achieving any comeback in their first game of the season.

Heatley looked much more impressive in his second game as a Shark than in the season opener against Colorado. He improved from a -3 night to a 2 assist +2. Patrick Marleau had several breakaway attempts, but only converted on the shorthanded move in the first period. Douglas Murray was thrown out of the game early in the third period after receiving a 10 minute game misconduct. San Jose held Anaheim to 1 out of 6 power plays, successfully killing off the first 5, but once again only converted 1 out of 6 of their own after a similar result Thursday night. San Jose's next game will be in Los Angeles against the Kings on Tuesday.