Martin Jones calmly stifled the Kings In stark contrast to Jonathan Quick, the frenetic and often brilliant Kings goaltender, Jones doesn’t aggressively pursue pucks and adheres to his crease duties.
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Doughty’s workload is certain to increase if fellow defenseman Alec Martinez can’t play in Game 2 on Saturday at Staples Center because of an undisclosed injury.
With the lead, the Sharks limited the Kings to just 13 shots on goal in the first two frames.
Home-ice advantage now belongs to the Islanders and they can take a 2-0 lead back to Barclays Center if they prevail when the series resumes in a quick turnaround on Friday.
Though the team was well in line for a playoff spot months before the season ended, the overwhelming train of thought was that the Sharks would falter to the Kings or Ducks, whomever the Sharks drew in the first round.
It’s paying off so far.
Well, they’re going to San Jose down 2-0. They don’t like to give up possession, so make sure those passes get through to your teammates. “For us to get the first goal really got us in the game”. “But there’s always nerves (before a playoff game)”. “The next game, I’ve got to step up and do that”. He scored the two goals that Ward didn’t set up, including San Jose’s first equaliser and the game winning goal. A couple of bad breaks like that might have rattled some goalies, but he fought through it with the poise of a veteran.
“If I need to play 30 minutes, that’s great”, he said.
The ability of the behind team to score the tying goal was almost magical in this game. “If not, I’ll play 25 minutes”.
The Sharks aren’t exactly patting themselves on the back just yet, though. You just let a goal in.
“This power play has been good for a decade”, said coach Peter DeBoer. As a result, the Kings appear to lack their typical mojo that they usually find by infuriating and subsequently suffocating teams. “He’s good offensively. He’s going to add that dimension wide for them”. Whether he didn’t respect the strength of the threat or couldn’t fight off the strength of Pavelski’s skating, the Sharks’ captain zipped right around in front of the net and essentially dunked the puck on Quick’s glove-side pad.
“I did it with Cory Schneider when he came to New Jersey”, said DeBoer. “Like any other team you want to get on the power play and make it count and make something positive out of it”.
Jones has been close to automatic everywhere he’s been, though, taking the Calgary Hitmen to the Memorial Cup in major junior, getting noticed behind Quick in L.A. and then putting up some excellent numbers in San Jose – going 37-23-4 with six shutouts in 65 games.
Martin Jones might have been a little lucky Saturday night.
And Joe Pavelski, well, he’s outplaying everyone.
“We just weren’t very good”, Kings captain Dustin Brown said. “It’s not about me or Quickie”. In LA’s 2014 Stanley Cup run, he averaged 28:45 of ice-time and had 18 points in 26 games played.
“For us when we’re playing well defensively I think we don’t give them too much time and space”.
A lot of uncertainty surrounded the San Jose Sharks heading into Game 1, but team teal came out with a hard-fought win against the Los Angeles Kings. Those who watched Game 1 Sharks vs Kings can see that the Sharks are very capable of handling the Kings! After Saturday’ s Game 2, the series shifts to San Jose for Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Wednesday. This is noted strength of the San Jose Sharks, and they underscored it this game.
“We’ve got to stop playing with frustration and start playing with determination”.
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“We’re trying to push the pace and they like to play a strong, heavy game”, Nieto said.
