With the final week of the regular season starting, the San Jose Sharks started their first of 3 games remaining against the 3 worst teams in the Western Conference. The Colorado Avalanche came into HP Pavilion Tuesday night as the 28th ranked team in the NHL and the 28th ranked team on the road. The Sharks were first in both the league and home record. But Peter Budaj made highlight reel save after highlight reel save, and stopped 2 out of 3 in the shootout, but Joe Pavelski's shootout goal turned out to be the difference as San Jose defeated the Avalanche 1-0.
The San Jose Sharks continued to break records, but the first period was perhaps one they did not want to be part of history for. The Avalanche and the Sharks combined for a total of 5 shots in the first 20 minutes, 3 by Colorado and 2 by San Jose, for this season's lowest shot output in a period. The second period was a much better offensive period for both teams, with San Jose registering 16 shots on goal. But the best scoring chance came shorthanded for Wojtek Wolski, who took a mishandled puck from Dan Boyle while Evgeni Nabokov was behind his net, and nearly wrapped the puck around for a wide open score. But Nabokov kicked out his leg from the other side of the net, and the puck bounced off his pads, off the pole, and out of danger.
The second half of the game was where Peter Budaj shined, courtesy of 5 straight Colorado penalties, including 3 minutes of 4 on 3 power play time in overtime. But twice San Jose tried to quickly wrap the puck around while Budaj lost his stick, but the Avalanche netminder quickly got to the post and sealed off the shortside. On another scoring chance for the Sharks, a Colorado defenseman tripped, leaving both Jeremy Roenick and Jonathan Cheechoo wide open in front of Budaj. Joe Thorton centered the puck, which Roenick one-timed. Budaj made a spectacular save, and a rebound trickled to Cheechoo, but Budaj stuck his glove out and smothered the puck for the whistle before San Jose could push it past the goal line. In the shootout, Joe Pavelski took the first shot and scored the only goal, shooting a hard wrister past the glove of Budaj. Budaj saved Cheechoo's and Roenick's attempts to keep the Avalanche in the game. But Wolski and Milan Hejduk missed the net, and the rookie Chris Stewart tried to do a spin-o-rama to a backhand shot, but the puck went straight into Nabokov for an easy save, and San Jose won 1-0.
Peter Budaj stopped 30 shots in total, while Nabokov only had to make 20 saves. The Avalanche were skating with 4 rookie defenseman, which resulted in Scott Hannan and John-Michael Liles having over 30 minutes of ice time each. San Jose had its 10 games in a row power play goal scoring streak snapped, after they went 0 for 5 on the power play, with all 5 coming consecutively. With the win, San Jose jumped 5 points ahead of Boston and 6 points ahead of Detroit in the race for the President's trophy, with both clubs still having a game on hand over the Sharks. Boston would have to win all 3 remaining games and San Jose would have to lose all 2 in regulation for the Bruins to take the prize, while Detroit would win the tiebreaker between themselves and San Jose if they have an equal amount of points at the end of the season. The Sharks welcomed back Claude Lemieux and Mike Grier as their roster slowly gets healthy for the postseason. Chances are coach Todd McLellon wants the rest of his injured roster to show up for San Jose's next game: a Thursday night home match against the Phoenix Coyotes.
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