The Journey Continues

“We just had to keep on throwing pucks at the net and
hope for the best.”---Coach Ron Wilson

By Barbara Mason BASD/Raiderdrive.com
Story posted by Al Reyes-BASD

It has been a journey of ups and downs. The San Jose Sharks had seen it all during the season and had weathered adversity throughout. When it all came down to win or go home come playoff time, San Jose chose to win. Closing out the season like gangbusters, they entered the playoffs on top of their game. Although they stumbled in their first game against Nashville, they came back strong to return to San Jose all tied up one game apiece.

While the Sharks fell behind midway through the first period when Nashville’s Greg Johnson got one past San Jose goalie #35 Vesa Toskala for the early lead 1-0 on a short-handed goal, San Jose continued to defend and play hard. This goal would turn out to be the only one that was able to get by Toskala. Although the Sharks had 14 shots on goal to Nashville’s 5 in the first period, none of them were able to find pay dirt.

In the second period the tying goal eluded San Jose until #12 Patrick Marleau assisted by #44 Christian Ehrhoff brought the crowd back to life with a shot that careened past Nashville goalie Chris Mason. “It got everybody going and got everybody excited so it’s nice to see him playing like this,” said team mate Jonathan Cheechoo after the game. The crowd erupted when at 18:48 #26 Steve Bernier assisted by, once again, Christian Ehrhoff and #42 Tom Preissing gave the Sharks the lead for the first time in the game. This was the Sharks first score in this game on a power play.

There was new life in the sold out HP Pavilion as the third and final period of the game got under way. The Sharks took complete control of the game even more so than in the first two periods. Goalie Vesa Toskala made a number of miraculous saves although he gave his teammates a lot of credit for making his job easy. “I got a couple of key saves at a good time and my confidence bounced back right away,” said Toskala. San Jose put the lights out for Nashville at 15:38 when #14 Jonathan Cheechoo scored for a 3-1 lead. The Sharks were not finished and a little over a minutes later, Patrick Marleau had his second goal of the evening for the final score of 4-1.

From all appearances it would seem that the San Jose Sharks have been able to maintain what they have been able to do that has resulted in such success. In Tuesday’s game, despite falling behind in the first period, the Sharks were able to play through. As Coach Ron Wilson explained, “ that’s kind of a test to be able to do that and play as well as we did for sixty minutes. We just had to keep on throwing pucks at the net and hope for the best.”

It was a great night for San Jose’s forwards, winning battles down low and protecting the puck. They blocked shots all night making life a little easier for Toskala who remained focused and sharp the entire evening. The determination that Joe Thornton has right now can be seen every time he takes the ice. Both his size and his determination make it extremely difficult for opponents to take any sort of control, something that has to be very frustrating to defend against.

The San Jose Sharks now take a lead in the series 2-1. Their celebration of this victory will be short-lived as they look ahead to game 4 this Thursday night at HP Pavilion and the new challenges that it will bring. Victory in game 3 was glorious indeed, however, for the San Jose Sharks the next game is the most important game of all.