The San Jose Sharks lost the one and only appearance the team will make in Chicago. The Blackhawks played a great game and came out ahead 5-2 against the Sharks.
Early on in the first period, the Sharks trailed 3-0 and fans were concerned the game would be a wash. Fortunately, Joe Pavelski wasn’t going to let that happen. Justin Braun was able to throw the puck to the net and Pavelski tipped it in.
More from Editorials
- Korenar deserves a chance at the NHL level
- Three prospects the Sharks should consider drafting
- Red hot Couture provides a much needed boost
- Is it reasonable for the Sharks to fire Doug Wilson?
- NHL misses golden opportunity with Tahoe games
The comeback continued when Pavelski capitalized on a power play chance to fire it past Corey Crawford off of a pass from Joe Thornton. The Joe’s brought the score to a 3-2 deficit. This was only the second power play goal that the Blackhawks have allowed at home this season. The majority of the second period was dominated by the Sharks. Unfortunately this was not enough after a terrible first period. A post-game interview by Vlasic stated exactly how the game came unwound. He stated that the fourth goal wasn’t the one that hurt the Sharks, that it was the first three that did them in.
The third resulted in a goal from Blackhawks’ Bryan Bickell. Niemi was pulled towards the end of the period, as is expected in such a situation. Unfortunately an empty netter was made by Jonathan Toews.
Niemi came back to the net after this and chaos ensued. After some battling on the boards, Marc Edouard-Vlasic and Kris Versteeg were holding each other’s sticks. With emotions running high, a fight was the result. Soon thereafter, Burish got into another scrum and the Sharks made a statement that they refused to leave quietly.
The two teams meet twice more during the 2014-15 campaign, both of which will happen in San Jose.
The Sharks are now 1-1 on their seven-game road trip. Next up the guys are headed to Florida to battle the Panthers on Tuesday.