San Jose Sharks Winning In A Variety Of Ways
The San Jose Sharks have hit their stride during their current road trip, winning their first four games, but all in very different fashions.
While the each game has been decided by only one goal, each game has been unique in its own way. San Jose began the trip with arguably their worst performance of the four games against the Detroit Red Wings. The Sharks found themselves down early, but fought back with three straight goals. Despite only registering a measly 14 shots on goal, San Jose was able to leave Detroit with a 3-2 victory as Martin Jones shouldered the load for his teammates, coming up big with 26 saves.
The next night out, the Sharks were pit against an up-start Buffalo Sabres squad and loads of history against the boys in teal. San Jose would strike first within the first couple of minutes, but then play a more defensive minded game as the Sabres pushed to even things up. Jones played well again, and it would be Patrick Marleau, amidst all the trade rumors swirling, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime to snap a 10-year losing streak against the Sabres in Buffalo.
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The road trip continued in Boston, and this one was much different than the previous two games. The Sharks and Bruins would use their dynamic offenses to generate plenty of chances throughout the night, firing plenty of rubber past the two netminders.
San Jose battled back from two one-goal deficits to leave Beantown with a 5-4 victory as it was the Sharks offense that controlled the game. San Jose’s top line of Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Melker Karlsson were dominant as each recorded a goal and finished the night with a plus-six rating.
Finally, after the back-and-forth shootout against the Bruins, it was a much tighter game against the Philadelphia Flyers. After relying heavily on the offense in Boston, it was the goaltender who was San Jose’s best player on this night.
Jones made 34 saves in recording his league-leading third shutout and 10th victory of the year as Karlsson won the game in overtime for the Sharks off a perfect feed from Joonas Donskoi on a 2-on-1.
That’s four wins in four games for the boys as they’ve displayed the versatility in their game to this point. Good teams find different ways to win as you won’t always have your “A-game” every night. Fortunately for the Sharks, they’ve been able to overcome the points in these games when they haven’t been at their best.
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Plus, it’s helped that Jones has rediscovered his strong play form earlier in the season, as he’s come up with big saves in key moments of each of these games, picking up all four victories to this point in the trip.
The Sharks will now look to sweep the road trip with back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets. If they can continue to have different players step up each night and rely on their solid goaltending, San Jose could be able to make history with a perfect 6-0 road trip.