The third time was the charm for the San Jose Sharks. In the last two meetings this season against the Minnesota Wild, San Jose lost both of them in overtime. Drew Remenda, the broadcaster for CSN Bay Area, stated that their most recent loss last Thursday, was one of the most heartbreaking moments in team history. After what looked to be deja vu all over again, San Jose overcame their impending fate off a great individual effort by Christian Ehrhoff to get their first win over the Wild in overtime this season 5-4.
The game was almost a complete mimic of the Thursday loss where the Sharks blew a 3-0 lead in the third quarter, off a much discussed fluke goal by a Marek Zidlicky dump in that took a funny bounce and went under Brian Boucher's leg to tie the game 3-3. In fact, San Jose's leading scorer in both games shared the same first name, with Pavelski (known as Little Joe in the locker room) scoring 2 goals on Thursday night and Thornton (Jumbo Joe) scoring 2 goals on Tuesday. Thornton got the Sharks started hot once again against the Wild, after a centering pass from the sideboards deflected off a Minnesota defender's stick and over Niklas Backstrom's head into the net to give San Jose the 1-0 lead. Then, Patrick Marleau stole a pass going across the blue line during a Wild power play and went on a breakaway. The shot was poked away by Backstrom, but straight onto the stick of Travis Moen, who was trailing behind. Moen shot the puck through Backstrom's pads and into the net, scoring his first goal as a Shark shorthanded, and putting San Jose up 2-0 in the first period.
In the second, all things were rolling with the Sharks, who were probably thinking they had to keep the pressure on after the upsetting loss on Thursday. Christian Ehrhoff shot the puck on goal, and bodies were all around Backstrom. Backstrom once again poked the puck out with his stick, but only found Thornton who took advantage of the sprawling goaltender and shot the puck on the top corner for a 3-0 lead. But 3 minutes later, the tables turned towards Minnesota. A loose puck came in front of Boucher, who tried to cover it up to get a whistle. But a San Jose skate impeded his path to the puck, and Peter Olvecky took the puck and tapped it in past Boucher who was out of position to cut the lead down to 2 goals.
The third period was all about Minnesota. A minute into the period, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who scored Minnesota's second goal on Thursday, scored the second goal on Tuesday, shooting a hard wrist shot right past Boucher's glove to cut the lead down 3-2. But after a strong shift by the Sharks, Milan Michalek took the puck to Backstrom from a bad angle, but managed to lift the puck right over Backstrom's shoulder and roofed the net to give San Jose a comfortable 4-2 lead. But 3 minutes later, Owen Nolan, former Sharks captain and the ex-franchise leader in all scoring categories for San Jose before Marleau recently broke his records, scored his 400th career goal, deflecting a beautiful pass from Zidlicky past Boucher to put the Wild back into the game with 7 minutes left. Then, with 2 minutes left in the third, Nolan scored again, receiving a pass from Mikko Koivu positioned behind the San Jose net, and shooting it under Boucher's legs to tie the game 4-4.
San Jose was being dominated in their own offensive zone for the remainder of the third period and the beginning of the overtime period. But Ehrhoff caused a turnover off Zidlicky's stick in the neutral zone, outskated a Minnesota defender, and shot the puck softly right over Backstrom's shoulder to win the game in overtime. Backstrom went down early and Ehrhoff just got enough of the puck to put it over the top of the Wild netminder.
The win broke a 4 game losing streak by San Jose, and it was the first win for Brian Boucher since taking over the starting position at goaltender 6 games ago when Evgeni Nabokov went down with injury. Nabokov, who did not make the road trip with the Sharks, is expected to return Saturday night when San Jose hosts the Los Angeles Kings. With the win, San Jose jumped ahead of the Boston Bruins, who lost today, for the top spot in the NHL, but still shared that lead with the Detroit Red Wings, who also won in overtime. With an overtime loss, Minnesota gained a point, which puts them in a tie for 9th place with the Dallas Stars. The Nashville Predators and Edmonton Oilers both lost in overtime, giving them a 1 point lead ahead of 10th place for a tie for 7th. 3 assists were taken away by the Niklas Backstrom's stick, as both Moen's shorthanded goal and Thornton's power play goal were considered unassisted after Backstrom poke checked the puck. San Jose was a perfect 3 for 3 on the penalty kill. Nolan's 2 goals gave him 20 total for the season, which made it the 10th straight season he's scored at least 20. Thornton's power play goal also gave him 20 for the season, making it the 9th straight he's accomplished the feat. Moen assisted on Thornton's first goal of the game, for a 2 point night in his second game as a San Jose Shark. The Sharks continue their road trip Thursday against the St. Louis Blues, who defeated Dallas Tuesday, giving them a share of the three way tie with Nashville and Edmonton for 7th place.
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