San Jose Destroys Defending Stanley Cup Champs
“The biggest goal for us this year is to get better.” --Joe Pavelski  

By Barbara Mason 11/07/2009
Bay Area Sports Drive/Raiderdrive.com
Photos by Al Reyes

Saturday night the San Jose Sharks took on the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins at HP Pavilion in what would turn out to be a hotly contested game. All eyes were naturally on Penguin superstar #87 Sidney Crosby and hoping that San Jose was going to be able to shut him down. What fans were there to see was another Shark victory after a most successful road trip.  The Sharks have been on fire and goalie Evgeni Nabokov has been fierce. 

San Jose came on the ice with a real purpose in the first period controlling the game from the get go.  #64 Jamie McGinn scored his second goal of the season to give San Jose the early lead, 1-0.  The Penguins were unable to get much of anything going in the period as San Jose dictated play throughout.  San Jose closed out the period with a second goal off the stick of #8 Joe Pavelski on the power play for a 2-0 lead.  San Jose came away with 13 shots on goal to the Penguins 3.  

Less than four minutes into the second period San Jose took the lead to 4-0 continuing to dominate the game.  It was #22 Dan Boyle for goal number 3 and #15 Dany Heatley not long after with the 4^th goal of the evening keeping Pittsburgh completely on their heels.  San Jose’s power kills were brilliant through two periods as were the saves by Evgeni Nabokov making every stop look nothing more than routine.  Nabokov was just that good.  It was solid play all around for the Sharks after two periods. 

The third and final period brought the fifth goal of the game for San Jose on a 4 minute power play.  This time it was #27 Manny Malhotra finding the net for the comfortable 5-0 lead and the eventual final score.  Despite missing a good number of players, the Sharks looked as good as they have looked all season.  This will be the last time these two teams will play each other in regular season.       

“This was a good night for us as a team.  The biggest thing was that we got that first goal,” said Joe Pavelski after the game.  “The biggest goal for us this year is to get better,” he said. 

There will be some down time for San Jose to relish this resounding win.  It will be short-lived as the Sharks get ready for another home game against the Predators next Tuesday night

 The puck drops at 7:30.