The postseason may be out of reach for the Phoenix Coyotes, but that did not deter them from playing spoilers against the San Jose Sharks, who were in a race for the President's trophy. Shane Doan had 3 first period assists on 3 goals by the Coyotes, and with 30 seconds left scored the game winning goal to break a ferocious comeback attempt by the Sharks.
The first period was summed up for the Sharks in the first 30 seconds. On the first shift of the game, Doan drove the puck to the net but had his shot blocked and deflected in the air. But before Evgeni Nabokov could see where the puck was, Kyle Turris hit the puck out of the air and into the net to give Phoenix the early 1-0 lead. The Coyotes ended the period with 2 power play attempts, and scoring on every one. Doan once again shot the puck to the net from the side, but the puck deflected off Dan Boyle's stick right on to Turris's who was stationed in front to tip the puck in for the 2-0 lead. Then with 15 seconds left in the first period, Turris found Dmitri Kalinin, who rifled a shot off the post and into the net for a dominating 3-0 lead.
But Joe Thorton and the Sharks were not about to go down without a fight, or three to be exact. After a hard hit on Dan Boyle by Daniel Winnik, Rob Blake came out and challenged him to a fight. In the second period, Jody Shelley and Brad Staubitz had fights 3 minutes apart to try to get the Sharks going. It worked, as a power play was given to the Sharks 2 minutes later, and Thorton skated around the net, turned around, and shot it past Ilya Bryzgalov to put the Sharks on the board and cut the lead to two.
Thorton once again led the Sharks, and San Jose almost mounted a come back in the third. Rob Blake found a loose puck in front of Bryzgalov and poked it right onto Thorton's stick on the other side of the crease, and Thorton slapped it in easily to cut the deficit to 1 goal. Then 4 minutes later, Thorton found himself in Blake's situation, grabbing a loose puck in front of Phoenix's goaltender, and backhanding a pass to Patrick Marleau, who was in front of the net for a wide open game tying goal. The Sharks were rolling over Phoenix, outshooting them 16-4 late in the third, but off the faceoff Jonathan Cheechoo took an interference penalty with a little over 30 seconds left in the period. It was all the time the Coyotes needed, as Shane Doan stole a puck from San Jose off the faceoff, skated across Brian Boucher, and backhanded it under the pads to seal the win 4-3 with under 30 seconds to go.
Six seperate players had a multi-point night. Thorton and Blake registered points on all 3 San Jose goals while Doan and Turris had points on all 4 goals for Phoenix. Nabokov was pulled at the end of the first period after allowing 3 goals on 9 shots. Brian Boucher had 10 saves, but let in Shane Doan's game winning goal. Bryzgalov made 33 saves on 36 shots by the Sharks, who outshot Phoenix in every period. After killing off 15 straight penalties, San Jose's penalty kill looked horrendous, as the Coyotes were 3 for 4 on their power play. San Jose went 1 for 3 with the man advantage. With a Dallas loss, San Jose clinched the Pacific Division, but fell to 3 points behind Detroit for the lead in the Western Conference and the NHL, as Detroit defeated Philadelphia. Detroit and San Jose are still the only teams in the NHL who have at least 100 points. San Jose's next game is Thursday night, where they host the Nashville Predators in a potential preview of the first round of the playoffs.
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