The Sharks and Penguins squared off less than two weeks ago when San Jose edged Pittsburgh by a 3-1 margin behind two goals from Brent Burns and his first goal in teal from his defense partner Paul Martin.
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Coach Mike Johnston tinkered with his lines heading into the game, reuniting the Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Pascal Dupuis line to try to spark some offense. “It’s been a long time”. “It’s a tough building to win in”. Pittsburgh had gone winless in 12 games here since beating San Jose 5-2 on October 22, 1997, garnering only one tie during the skid. Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves for the Penguins in notching his 12th victory of the season.
Crosby has improved since his dismal start at the beginning of the season and has netted three goals over the last five games, but he has only scored once against the Sharks in the last nine against them.
“There were some rebounds there that [Fleury] kicked out and we had some second chance opportunities, but it seemed like they were always there to whack it into the corner and have us start over again”, Martin said. Since then, the Sharks were 11-0-1 in home games against the Penguins. Also of note, Marleau has been on fire lately, registering three goals and four assists in his last four games, including a three-game goal scoring streak. “It hit off a guy twice”, Kessel said.
“That was puck luck for sure”.
Just 2:30 into the first period, Phil Kessel came around the Sharks net with the puck and attempted to pass it to the front of the net. Jones has allowed seven goals in his last three games.
“I was hoping they would pull the goalie again and we’d get six”, Perron said. “We’re not even talking about it, his goal, but it’s another highlight reel at a key time”.
In Nashville, Filip Forsberg had two goals and an assist.
Marleau got the Sharks on the board late in the third when he was left alone in the slot on the power play to knock in a pass from Joe Pavelski. And like their goal in the first, both came from behind the San Jose goal line.
San Jose almost got a second goal 17 seconds later, but Tommy Wingels was called for goalie interference to negate Tomas Hertl’s score. “That was a critical turning point right there”, Sharks’ head coach Peter DeBoer said. “We just got rolling. I’m still a little unsure on how the decision was made based on my views of it, but that’s all part of it”. San Jose has bumped their rating up to 24th in the league following two power play goals against Calgary. The captains each got sent off for roughing….
Perron scored on a power play at 8:42 of the third period, finishing a feed from Chris Kunitz in tight, to mark a seventh consecutive game the Penguins converted on the power play.
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“The Penguins’ 5’9”, 170 lb David Warsofsky made his debut on the blue line replacing Adam Clendening.
