Blades of Teal
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San Jose Sharks Destroy Toronto By Seven-Goal Margin

By Patrick Leiva

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Now that’s how you’re supposed to play on home ice.

After dropping three of the first four games on their five-game home stand, the San Jose Sharks left no doubts that they were going to leave the Bay Area on a high note, dismantling the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs by a 7-0 scoreline.

The Sharks appeared to channel all of their frustrations from previous home defeats and take it out on the Maple Leafs who ran into a buzzsaw after the first period.

During the first 20 minutes of action, it didn’t appear as if San Jose would run away with things as Martin Jones was forced to make a series of key saves to keep things scoreless as Toronto would outshoot the Sharks by a 12-7 margin in the first and killed off two San Jose power plays.

However, the Sharks would bust this one wide open in the second beginning with a spectacular rush from Brent Burns. Burns would take a feed from Paul Martin and slide the puck between Nazem Kadri’s legs before skating around Dion Phaneuf and roofing one glove side on Jonathan Bernier for his 17th goal of the year.

From that moment on, it was all San Jose as they dominated Toronto with a series of nice passing plays and great individual efforts.

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First, it was Tommy Wingels chasing down a loose puck and finding Matt Nieto alone in front for a tap-in, shorthanded goal to make it 2-0. Then, Tomas Hertl, playing up on the first line, found Joe Pavelski with a perfect pass from behind the net as Pavelski buried his 21st of the season.

The rout was officially on as Hertl would deposit his fifth goal of the season, knocking home a rebound of Justin Braun’s point shot to give San Jose a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes of play. It’s the kind of goals that Hertl needs to be scoring on a more frequent basis as he needs to establish his presence in front of the net.

The Sharks continued to pour it on in the final frame as more players found themselves breaking out of extended scoring slumps. Melker Karlsson would score his fifth goal of the year, taking a feed from Chris Tierney and sneaking it past Bernier who had to feel the brunt of the San Jose onslaught all night.

Joonas Donskoi would net his fifth with a great wraparound attempt for goal number six, before Hertl would score his second of the night, giving the Sharks a much needed victory on home ice.

This was a great end to the home stand as San Jose received contributions from the entire lineup. Braun had a career-high three points, all assists, and a plus-five rating, while Hertl set a new career-best with a plus-four rating.

Peter DeBoer had to like what he witnessed as he shook up the Sharks forward lines in hopes of find more offense throughout the lineup. Even more encouraging, six of the seven goals came at five-on-five with the other one being a shorthanded tally.

Jones was sharp between the pipes for the second consecutive game, making 28 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and first since Nov. 19 against Philadelphia. His contributions will likely be overlooked by the seven-goal margin of victory, but make no mistake, he was key in the early going and will need to keep having performances like this for the Sharks to get back in the race.

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While some may say this was no surprise since it was Toronto, the opponent doesn’t matter right now for San Jose. They need to play the right way and bank points in any way possible. The key for the Sharks will be to translate this performance on a more frequent basis, beginning with a key back-to-back in Calgary and Winnipeg next week.

San Jose should head into their matchup with the Flames feeling good about themselves, but they must make this kind of production up-and-down the lineup a more regular occurrence for the Sharks to have the kind of success they envision.

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