Saturday night, the San Jose Sharks took on the Phoenix Coyotes after a week on the road.  Coming up with a shootout and a loss on that trip, the Sharks hope to get back on track at home in San Jose.  With the playoffs fast approaching San Jose needs to get back into a winning mind frame.  They just do not look like a playoff team at the moment.  The rash of injuries that the Sharks have suffered have obviously not helped at all however Coach Todd McClellan will never lean on that shortfall.  It has always been his premise that, it is what it is, and the team will deal with it. San Jose is by far not the only team that limps into the postseason.  This is the adversity that faces teams across the league as the regular season come to an end. 

 The first period Saturday evening ended scoreless with both teams taking eight shots on goal.  It was a fairly quiet period with a few scoring chances.  Not a lot to get too terribly excited about but then that is what second and third periods were made for.  Captain #12 Patrick Marleau went out late in the first period and the hope was that he would be able to return in the second period, however his attempt to go out for a shift in the second period made it clear that he would be unable to finish the game.

The first score of the game came early in the second period when the Coyotes #44 Kurt Sauer scored his first goal of the season at 2:18 to take the lead 1-0.  Seconds later when a Phoenix pass hit one of their own players in front of their goal, #45 Jody Shelley seized the moment and the puck for the unassisted goal and the tie 1-1.  That goal seemed to get San Jose going as #47 Tom Cavanagh scored the first goal of his career giving San Jose their first lead of the game 2-1.  It was short-lived as the Coyotes came right back to tie up the game when #15 Matthew Lombardi scored his 14^th goal of the season.  The period ended 2-2 with San Jose leading the shots on goal, 23-18.

 San Jose reclaimed the lead, 3-2, in the third period when #8 Joe Pavelski (23^rd goal of the season) scored on the power play.  He was assisted by #10 Christian Ehrhoff (29^th assist) and #16 Devon Setoguchi (33^rd assist).  With one minutes left in the game Phoenix pulled their goalie and fans sat through what can only be described as “the longest minute in hockey.”  San Jose held on for the 3-2 win.

 “I think everyone is going to have to contribute,” said Tom Cavanagh who scored his first goal in this game.  “We need all four lines to be able to go out there and create some energy so it was good tonight.  I think that’s what this team needs,” he said.

 The unassisted goal this evening was scored by Jody Shelley, a fun goal in his words.  “That was nice.  Not many times in a game where you get a break like that so that was fun when it went in,” he said.  There has been some frustration on Shelley’s line of late and so tonight’s success was very gratifying.  “We’ve been watching the top three lines really work and watched Jumbo every night and Patty Marleau every night bring something to the game. We were getting frustrated with each other so Tommy Cavanagh getting his first one and then I was lucky enough to get one; it was a nice feeling,” said Shelley.

 San Jose is now two points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings however that is far from their main focus right now.  “There are two issues for us.  One is the players that are playing and it’s great to see the injection of energy from the Worcester player that have come up and really contributed,” said Coach Todd McLellan.  “The second is the guys that play high end minutes, Joe Thornton, Dan Boyle those type of guys, we have to be cognizant of the fact that we don’t want to burn them out down the stretch,” he said.  “We can’t play these last seven games with Detroit in the back of our mind.  We are a better team when we are focused on what we are doing,” said McLellan.

 Monday San Jose will be on the road to take on the Calgary Flames.

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