In the high-powered San Jose Sharks' final home game of the month, the Atlanta Thrashers, who had scored 16 goals in their last 3 games, including a total of 14 against the other two Californian teams, came to HP Pavilion. Who would have guessed that, for the first time this season in San Jose, the first goal would take over 40 minutes to be scored? But the Sharks came out on top in what was mostly a defensive struggle, with several power play chances in the third period providing most of the scoring in the game.
Although it was a no goal affair in the first two periods, there were several quality chances and the game was wide open throughout. Atlanta had two power play opportunities in the first period, in which they registered 3 of their 5 first period shots on goal, but failed to convert. Things also opened up late in the second period, when Jody Shelley, in his first game back from a lower body injury, fought with former first round draft pick Boris Valabik. The fight seemed to get energy going for both teams in the final 6 minutes of the second, and there were several quality opportunities, including some missed shots on open nets, at both ends of the ice.
But 30 seconds into the third, Ryane Clowe found a loose puck in front of Kari Lehtonen, and tapped it in past Lehtonen who was dealing with traffic in front to put the first tally of the game up on the board. Then after an Atlanta hooking penalty, Jonathan Cheechoo shot the puck through Lehtnonen's pads. Lehtonen got a piece of it, but it just trickled past him into the corner of the net to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead. But after Mike Grier tripped Ilya Kovalchuk on Atlanta's power play, the Thrashers capitalized on a 5 on 3 opportunity, with Slava Kozlov making a pass across the crease to Bryan Little for a tap in that Dan Boyle partially blocked, but it still bounced over him and into the net. But with 7 minutes left in the third, Dan Boyle's shot deflected off an Atlanta stick, and it bounced straight onto Joe Thorton's stick and was redirected into the Atlanta net to give the Sharks the 3-1 win. The Thrashers pulled their goaltender with a minute and a half left in the period, and Kovalchuk had an opportunity to put the puck past Evgeni Nabokov's right side, but he missed the net.
The San Jose Sharks took advantange of their much needed 3 game home stand. Coming off a 1-1-3 road trip, the Sharks went 3-0 at home, defeating all their opponents in regulation by a differential of 2 goals in each of the 3 games. Evgeni Nabokov made all 3 starts, and after giving up 6 goals to New Jersey and 5 goals to Buffalo in their final 2 road games of the trip, he never allowed more than 2 shots to get past him at home. The loss also broke a streak of recent success for the Atlanta Thrashers, who lost for the first time in regulation on their four game road trip. On Jonathan Cheechoo's power play goal, Jeremy Roenick got the primary assist, giving him his 700th career point. It was also Roenick's first game back from an injury that kept him off the ice since December. Bryan Little's power play goal was the first time a Thrashers team scored a power play goal in HP Pavilion, but Atlanta still has not won in San Jose. Tomas Plihal also returned from injury for the Sharks, which brought Patrick Marleau back to the first line with Thorton and Devin Setoguchi after he had been moved to center on the third line for more depth. Valabik returned to the Thrashers after missing 5 games with an injury, although he spent most of the time in the penalty box after committing two penalties and losing the very close fight with Shelley in the second. The Sharks will go on a 4 game road trip next week, where they begin in Dallas Monday night to face off with the Stars. San Jose is 3-0 against Dallas this year. The game will be nationally televised on Versus.
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