Poise, Precision Lifts the San Jose Sharks Over Vegas in Game 1

The San Jose Sharks strike first with electrifying 5-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights at SAP Center to take 1-0 series lead.

Sweet revenge always starts with the simple victories. Tonight, the San Jose Sharks were more hungry than ever before for the playoff showdown with the Vegas Golden Knights, and revenge was so sweet.

With perfect offensive execution and lockdown defense, the Sharks stormed past the Golden Knights 5-2 in Game 1 of the intense first-round match-up.

With an electric crowd at sold-out SAP Center, the San Jose Sharks stepped up to the challenge right out of the gates against the Golden Knights.

Unlike the four regular-season meetings, San Jose did not allow Vegas to score in the first five minutes despite outshooting the Sharks 5-1 early on.

After an extensive load of heavy hitting and a greater intensity of fore-checking, the Sharks fourth line muscled out a lengthy shift in the offensive zone. Micheal Haley, who was penciled into the lineup over Joonas Donskoi, drew a tripping call, and San Jose earned the game’s first power play.

Right on cue, the Sharks took advantage as Brent Burns rifled a shot from the point. Captain Joe Pavelski, known for tipping the puck into the goal, deflected the puck off his mouth past Marc-Andre Fleury to give San Jose a 1-0 lead.

Pavelski left the game for the remainder of the first period after losing some teeth, but the fearless leader returned immediately in the second frame.

The San Jose Sharks carried the one-goal edge into the locker room after 20 minutes, but not before losing two top-six forwards in Pavelski and Meier in the dying minutes of the

The second period had it all – not just even-strength play and 4-on-4 hockey, but the emphatic craziness of 3-on-3 hockey.

In the small margin of 30 seconds of 3-on-3, Burns, Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl executed their special teams assignments perfectly. Karlsson dropped a pass in the zone for Burns, who unloaded a wicked wrister perfectly placed at the top right corner of the net to extend San Jose’s lead to two.

Just 45 seconds later, a turnover by Jonathan Marchessault in defensive zone presented Joe Thornton with a hall of fame setup to the onrushing defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who snapped home his fourth career playoff goal.

The Golden Knights responded right away. As the questionable penalty on Joe Pavelski expired, Vegas capitalized down low after a redirection from Paul Stastny caromed right to the skate and stick of Mark Stone, who cut into  Team Teal’s 3-1 lead.

The heavy hits kept coming. The tempers continued to flare and an unrelenting effort by the Sharks defense transitioned into great-A scoring chances.

Through those factors, San Jose managed to double up on the shot clock 14-5 during the second period and Team Teal was far from finished.

As middle frame came to a close, Erik Karlsson fired a shot toward the net and Evander Kane perfectly tipped the puck over the shoulder of Fleury into the top right corner with ease.

Holding a 4-1 lead after two periods amidst a jam-packed, and beyond-loud arena felt like Christmas morning all over again.

Even though the Sharks created more scoring chances the majority of the night, the Golden Knights continued to apply an endless supply of hits, but that did not slow down the torrent pace of San Jose’s drive and determination.

Martin Jones and the Sharks locked down defensively from here on out, allowing just one more goal on a PP snipe by Mark Stone. Jones finished the night stopping 24 of Vegas’ 26 shots.

Despite a late frantic push by the Golden Knights, Hertl buried the empty-net dagger, his first goal of the night, to seal San Jose’s Game 1 victory.

The feistiness at the tail end of the contest sparked a combined total of 83 hits and sets a huge tone of animosity for round number two.

It was a “knight” of success for Team Teal as they jump out to a 1-0 series lead over Vegas and seek the repeat performance Friday night.