Ribeiro has improved in Games 1 and 2 against the Sharks from Nashville’s first round series versus the Anaheim Ducks.
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The Nashville Predators regained momentum with a win in Game 3 on Tuesday, but still trail the San Jose Sharks 2-1 in their second-round series.
Sharks coach Pete DeBoer didn’t rule out lineup changes for Thursday’s Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals series against the Nashville Predators. “He’s got a little scrape on his lip”. “It’s a big win and we have to focus on the next one”.
As you might have guessed, this relentless attack has meant a lot of goals.
Clutterbuck had given the Islanders a 4-3 lead with 8:37 remaining as he got the puck on a deflection of an outlet pass by the Lightning off the skate of the Islanders’ Casey Cizikas, and beat Bishop on the blocker side high and in off the crossbar. In games where the Sharks took at least five penalties they went 11-10-1, a mark that’s quite frankly relatively respectable.
Being on the road has proven to be no problem for the Sharks as they won 28 games away from home this season.
Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Johansen each lit the lamp for the third time this postseason.
“That’s why they do a best of seven and not just one game”, said Wilson. Fisher registered an assist on Colin Wilson’s goal at 6:55 of the third period. Donskoi had been great for team teal over the last three games, but his high-sticking penalty led to James Neal’s tying goal and his turnover at his own blue line led to Shea Weber’s game-winning blast.
“We’re playing really well right now, so it’s a good situation and really big game for both teams”, Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne said of Game 4.
The game was Nashville’s first win of the postseason when trailing at the first intermission and San Jose’s first loss of the postseason when leading after 20 minutes of play.
“Any time you’re up in the series is a good thing”, Jones said.
Coming into the series, the Sharks wanted to keep the puck away from Predators goalie Pekka Rinne as much as possible on zone entries, or at least try to make it hard for him to play the puck cleanly. We had to know a road loss was going to come at some point for the Sharks. “They were better on their penalty kill, which we expected, and we need to step up our game”. “I feel like we’re in a good place right now”.
“It’s in the back of your head”, Rinne said of being down 2-0, “but I felt everyone stayed loose”.
After a 4-1 victory in Game Three, the Preds cut San Jose’s series lead to 2-1 and forced a Game Five, which will come Saturday at SAP Center.
“We’re in a good spot, we’re up 2-1, we’ve been the best road team in the National Hockey League all year”, said head coach Peter DeBoer. “We’re a tight group and we’re not going to let anybody take liabilities on us and that’s what Reavo stood up for”. They’re a good team. Teams will always have the chase-down, had-no-choice minor penalties to deal with, but the lazy offensive zone forecheck penalties and tired-legs defensive zone penalties are absolutely inexcusable at this stage of the game.
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“This is going to be a tough series”.
