San Jose Sharks Defeat Vancouver Canucks For Eleventh Straight Time
Oct 10, 2013; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; San Jose Sharks goaltender Antii Niemi (31) makes a save against a shot on net by the Vancouver Canucks during the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
The San Jose Sharks (4-0, 8 points) defeated the Vancouver Canucks (3-2, 6 points) by the final score of 4-1 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The win is San Jose’s fourth straight win to start the season and have defeated Vancouver twice by the same score. Overall this is the Sharks’ 11th consecutive victory over the Canucks.
Forward Matt Pelech was back in the lineup tonight and ended up getting the first goal of his NHL career. His goal, which was San Jose’s second of the night, ended up being the game winner. This marks the third straight game a player on the Sharks has scored their first career goal. Interestingly enough, they have all been game winners.
Pelech’s goal came with less than a minute left in the first period and scored on a one-timer while heading to the net. He received a nice pass from James Sheppard who was behind the net and was able to fire it home.
San Jose’s other first period goal came midway through the first as Marc-Edouard Vlasic tallied his second goal of the season. Vlasic’s goal, which opened the scoring at 11:55, was a great wrist shot from the point from the high slot after receiving a pass from the right wing from Brent Burns.
The Canucks finally struck halfway through the second period when Mike Santorelli deflected a Ryan Stanton shot in the high slot. That deflection would be Vancouver’s only goal of the night as for the most part Antti Niemi was very strong, especially when he needed to be.
However, just a minute and a half later, the Sharks answered on a Patrick Marleau one-timer from Tyler Kennedy. Kennedy did all the dirty work along the board behind the net and was able to find Marleau at the faceoff dot who beat Roberto Luongo.
Late in the second period we saw some rough stuff as Alex Edler appeared to hit rookie Tomas Hertl in the head with his shoulder on a play at the boards. Hertl would be ok and returned to the game, but the hit was pretty similar to Brad Stuart’s last game where the shoulder of the hitter looked to hit the forward in the head. Stuart has just recently been suspended three games for that hit.
In the third period the Canucks seemed to ramp it up a bit on offense but Niemi stood on his toes and stayed strong in net. Eventually, with three minutes left in the game the Canucks pulled netminder Roberto Luongo to get the extra attacker. The Sharks were able to capitalize one more time with an empty netter by Brent Burns and finish the game by the final of 4-1.
GGS 3 Stars
1. Brent Burns (1 goal, 1 assist)
2. Logan Couture (2 assists)
2. Joe Thornton (2 assists)