San Jose Sharks defeat Capitals 6-5 In Shootout
By Erik West
The San Jose Sharks defeated the Washington Capital 6-5 in a shootout Tuesday night.
In the first period of the first game of the Sharks’ five-game road trip the San Joe Sharks quickly built a 3-0 lead on two goals by Matt Irwin and another by John Scott.
On Irwin’s first shift of this young season, after a face-off win by Joe Thornton that went directly back to him, Irwin wound up and blasted one through the crowd and past Capitals goalie Braden Holtby for the 1-0 lead. Then on a power play, Irwin backhanded one home from the slot.
Just before the halfway point of the period Brent Burns got the puck at the San Jose Sharks’ blue line who passed it up to Adam Burish. Burish sent a no-look pass to John Scott breaking into the zone, and in Scott’s first game as a Shark, he fired it past Holtby to make it 3-0, and thus, chasing Holtby.
Two minuets and 51 seconds into the second period Marcus Johansson buried a power play goal to make it 3-1. Shortly after Joe Pavelski trickled one past goalie Justin Peters. The Caps then would strike twice in 33 seconds on goals by Mike Green and Alex Ovechkin to narrow the lead to 4-3.
After a stern talking to by head coach Todd McLellan, Tommy Wingels got his own rebound and put it to the twine resulting in the Sharks’ fifth goal of the game. In the last 10 minuets of the game, Washington would make a very strong push, and tie it up with another goal by Ovechkin followed by Troy Brouwer tallying the tying goal.
After some back and fourth, scoreless hockey in OT, the two teams would head to the shootout.
Nicklas Backstrom and Patrick Marleau would fail to score in the first round of the SO, but after a miss by Evgeny Kuznetsov, Pavelski would net the only goal of the SO. The crazy game would end with the final score in the San Jose Sharks’ favor, 6-5.
BOXSCORE:
1st-
01:23 Matt Irwin (1) Assists: Joe Thornton (2)
04:36 Matt Irwin (2) Assists: Tommy Wingels (1), Matt Nieto (2)
09:34 John Scott (1) Assists: Adam Burish (1), Brent Burns (4)
2nd-
02:51 Marcus Johansson (1) Assists: Alex Ovechkin (1), John Carlson (3)
05:27 Joe Pavelski (1) Assists: Joe Thornton (3), Justin Braun (1)
06:35 Mike Green (2) Assists: Liam O’Brien (1), Evgeny Kuznetsov (2)
07:09 Alex Ovechkin (3) Assists: Nicklas Backstrom (3), Eric Fehr (1)
3rd-
01:37 Tommy Wingels (3) Assists: Chris Tierney (2), Tye McGinn (2)
14:09 Alex Ovechkin (4) Assists: Nicklas Backstrom (4), John Carlson (4)
15:25 Troy Brouwer (1) Assists: Mike Green (1), Andre Burakovsky (3)
OT-
None
SO-
Nicklas Backstrom-save
Patrick Marleau-save
Evgeny Kuznetsov-miss
Joe Pavelski-goal
Eric Fehr-miss
Bold-San Jose Sharks
Next Game: Thursday, Oct. 16 @NYI – 4:00 p.m.