San Jose Sharks Protect Home Ice, Take Game Two

Now with a 2-0 series advantage, the Sharks seem to have found their groove at home, beating the Predators 3-2, further proving they can in fact win on their own ice.

Although the San Jose Sharks lacked in shots, they made up for it on the scoreboard where it counts, scoring three goals and beating a resilient Nashville team, 3-2 on Sunday night to hold serve on home ice.

This was a game Sharks fans should feel somewhat fortunate to have won, as the Predators outshot the Sharks 39-25 who were also completely outmuscled, trailing in hits, 46-26. That doesn’t mean team teal didn’t deserve the victory, though, as the Sharks capitalized on their power-play chances, were great on the penalty kill, and laid it all on the line blocking 25 shots.

Just as in Game One, neither team could breakthrough for the entire first period and majority of the second frame, as the first goal didn’t come until just over a minute remained in period two. Both goalies, especially Pekka Rinne for Nashville, made some incredible saves to keep things deadlocked. Rinne is one who, despite what the stats may say, has had a good postseason and made huge saves to keep the Preds in basically every game. These two stops on Joonas Donskoi and Logan Couture in particular were massive.

But Couture would get his payback before the buzzer went off in the second period, gathering a Brent Burns shot that deflected off Rinne, easily putting it into the back of the net on the power-play. It was Couture’s fourth goal and Burns’ ninth assist and 12th point of the playoffs, both of which lead all NHL defensemen. Joe Pavelski added the secondary helper. The Sharks were fortunate to come out of the period with a lead, as Nashville had been outshooting San Jose 14-5 at one point in the frame.

But Nashville would keep pressuring and putting pucks on net, and they finally did break through more than halfway through the third period off the stick of Mattias Ekholm. It was a nice snap-shot that got through traffic, but the Predators had the puck for a long time on the shift and the Sharks gave him way too much space. Colin Wilson and Roman Josi notched assists on the goal.

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Team teal could have folded there – the Predators had been dominating puck possession and shots since the end of the first period and completely shifted the momentum with the goal.

But they didn’t. The Sharks saved their best hockey for last, limiting the Preds to a measly two shots in the seven minutes following their equalizer, and the stout defense would pay off. Who other than the captain, Pavelski, would change the game which seemed to be destined for overtime and score the game-winner as the clock struck 2:40. Once again it was an open-net rebound goal, but not an easy one for the Wisconsin native, who used quick reactions to barely get the shot off past Shea Weber who sprawled out in front of the net in a last ditch effort to block the shot. Matt Nieto and Thornton earned their first and third assists of the postseason, respectively.

Pulling the goalie didn’t work for Predators coach Peter Laviolette, as Thornton converted an open empty-netter to cap off the victory. Ryan Johansen would beat the buzzer to score with three seconds, shifting the scoreboard to 3-2, but it was too little too late for Nashville.

Once again, a total team victory for San Jose who saw good production from most of the team. The third and fourth lines both put in several good forechecking shifts, and the top two defensive pairings continued to be at peak performance. The third blue-line pairing of Roman Polak and Brenden Dillon did struggle though, as Dillon took a bad penalty and only recorded two hits. Both ended up with minus-one ratings.

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Martin Jones sustained his dominant playoff goaltending for team teal, stopping 37 of 39 shots that came his way. Safe to say that if the Sharks do falter at some point in the playoffs, nobody will be looking at Jones, who has be as good as one could ask for a young goaltender who had never started a playoff game before this April.

Nashville and San Jose will get back at it Tuesday night in Music City, where the Predators look to defend home ice and even up the series. It will be a difficult duty against a Sharks team who held the best road record of any team in the league in the regular season and has yet to lose away from home in the playoffs.