“They got a lucky bounce in the end and scored”.
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They had considerably more jump in Game 2 and Sharks coach Pete DeBoer doesn’t think their fatigue will be an issue again in the series. The Predators obviously have some great playmakers too, but many simply didn’t show up in San Jose for the first two games. Johansen made it 3-2 with 1:49 to play before the Sharks tacked on a pair of empty-bet scores and defeated Nashville 5-2.
The Joe Thornton line didn’t even have a shot until well into the third period in that second game.
They sure can’t simply rely on that as the San Jose Sharks were the best road team in the league this season. While Johansen netted one goal and set up another, leading scorer Filip Forsberg was held off the scoresheet for the sixth consecutive game.
The Nashville Predators were playing their eighth game in 15 days. “It’s all part of it. Our goaltending is part of it, our special teams is a part of it and so is our five-on-five play”.
While the Sharks don’t have much use for Predators, they are looking after the cat. Nashville carried much of the 5-on-5, out shooting the Sharks 39-25. Smith’s line with Filip Forsberg and Mike Ribeiro was buzzing, and Smith ended the game with a whopping seven shots.
The power play chance for the Sharks came after a freaky sequence.
“I saw some of the effects of that the first two periods”, DeBoer said.
Jones followed up a 29-save performance from Game 1 with a personal playoff-best 37 saves on Sunday as the Sharks topped the Predators 3-2 in Game 2 of the second round series.
And the Sharks are the first to admit that fate cut them a break in this one.
The little black feline was caught on camera dashing across the ice during a hockey match in California between the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks.
Thornton’s beard makes him look like an Old Testament prophet and in his pre-game TV interview he played the role well, attributing the success of San Jose’s power play to the team’s ability to knock home the rebounds of Brent Burns’s point shots. The goalie couldn’t control the rebound, and Couture pounced on it for his fourth goal at 18:36. It took David Backes’ power-play goal in overtime to lift the Blues over the Stars in Dallas to send the series back to St. Louis tied at a game apiece.
Yet, against an unwavering Predators’ defense and a veteran goalie making a highlight reel’s worth of saves, the Sharks head to Nashville with two tallies in the win column. “We went into attack mode and stayed on it the whole time”. It’s the first time they’ve won six of their first seven playoff games since 2006, when they beat Nashville 4-1 in the first round and then won the first two games against Edmonton in the conference semifinals. They are successfully wearing down the Predators with their depth and nobody is feeling the exhaustion of the third power more than Rinne.
On the other hand, the Oilers never sent a player onto the Sharks’ bench at a key moment in any of those games.
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Rinne stopped nearly all of the Sharks’ first shots. “I’m assuming it’s a rule that they’re not allowed to change on our bench”. So it shouldn’t have come as any surprise to the Predators that Ward delivered in the third period in his first postseason game against his former team.
