Evgeni Nabokov has not allowed a goal in the last 170:10 minutes of play, as he gets his second shutout in two games in a hard-hitting, well-goaltended game in a 2-0 San Jose Sharks win over the Phoenix Coyotes. Nabokov has not allowed a goal since before the All-Star Break, making 24 saves and getting lots of help from the special teams to get a win that propels the Sharks past the Boston Bruins for first place in the NHL and 8 points ahead of second place in the Western Conference, which is currently held by the Detroit Red Wings.
The game was close throughout, with only one goal getting past both goaltenders in the entire game. The battle was dominated by the big hitters and the penalty kill, with both teams getting heavily penalized but only going for a combined 1 for 11 on the power play. The 1 was a goal scored by Christian Ehrhoff, who has 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) in the past 4 games. The goal was started after San Jose failed to capitalize on their first two power plays. It took the entire power play unit to get the goal set up. Joe Thorton passed the puck in front of the net to Devin Setoguchi, who shot the puck and had a rebound go to Patrick Marleau's stick. Marleau then passed the puck to Ehrhoff in the high slot, who shot it and had the puck deflect off a Phoenix defender and past Ilya Bryzgalov, who played a spectacular game stopping 27 of 28 shots. The physical game was present throughout, with 64 total hits in the game. Defense was also present, especially in the last 2 minutes of the game where Phoenix pulled their goaltender during a power-play to make it 6 on 4. However, they failed to capitalize on the opportunity and Marcel Goc scored his first goal since October 25th into the empty net to seal the win. An earlier goal by Ryane Clowe was disallowed after video review showed that it was kicked in.
"It was a great battle. The match up was pretty good. They play us hard every night," Nabokov said.
Although Nabokov has a shutout streak going, the record holder for the longest shutout streak in the regular season is held by another San Jose goaltender, the backup Brian Boucher, who had 5 shutouts in a row when playing for the Phoenix Coyotes. Nabokov was not voted into the All-Star Game, despite having 25 regular season wins, but denied the possibility of the extra time off being a factor in his outstanding play since. "I think it's just a matter of concentration... I didn't do anything different, to be honest with you. I still had the same routine and the same workout, but the game is different now. The game is a little bit tighter and we had to adjust to it and we did adjust to it."
The Sharks power-play remained stagnant, going only 1 for 5 in the game. They were once again playing without their main power play pointman Dan Boyle, who missed his second game due to a wrist injury he reportedly suffered before the All-Star break. The scoring also could've have been higher for the Sharks, as 3 shots went off the post, including a shot by Joe Pavelski and Mike Grier when the Coyotes had an empty net. Claude Lemieux played in his 1200th NHL game, logging 8 minutes and 8 seconds of ice time. San Jose hosts the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, then they get a bye before hosting the Carolina Hurricanes next Thursday.
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