San Jose Sharks Earn Quality Win at Home Versus Isles

The San Jose Sharks defeated the the New York Islanders in a rare home game thus far into the season by the final score of 3-1.

Antti Niemi was in net once again for San Jose and had another good game. He was not as busy as he has been in the last few contests but made a few big saves when he was called upon.

Making things harder this evening for the Sharks was the absence of defenseman Scott Hannan for a majority of the game. He left midway through the first period with an injury and did not return.

The scoring got underway about eight minutes into the first period when the Islanders struck first on a goal by Kyle Okposo. Okposo made a nice move to split a couple of defenders after driving wide and fired a shot that beat Niemi to make it 1-0.

The San Jose Sharks would tie it up less than two minutes later on the power play. The goal came after Matt Nieto and Tommy Wingels combined to force a turnover behind the Islander net and then fed the puck to a wide open Hertl in front of the net.

In the third period the scoring picked back up after a scoreless second.

The San Jose Sharks went ahead with about eight minutes left in the third period on a deflection. The play came after some sustained zone time and eventually Justin Braun fired the shot-pass off to the side of the net where Logan Couture tipped it short-side on Jaroslav Halak to give San Jose the lead. With that goal Couture now has 11 points in last nine games.

James Sheppard added some insurance on his first goal of the season to make it 3-1 as the fourth line capitalized on a neutral zone turnover by New York. The puck eventually found it’s way to Adam Burish in the offensive zone who fed a streaking Sheppard who deflected the puck past Halak. Halak got a piece of it, but not enough to prevent the goal.

With about a minute and a half left New York pulled Halak, and shortly after drew a penalty after Burish brought down an Islander making it a 6-on-4 power play opportunity. The Sharks would stay strong, however, and keep the Islanders off the scoresheet for the remainder of the game.

San Jose’s next game comes on Thursday as they play the Vancouver Canucks. In the meantime the Sharks will no doubt enjoy four days off, something which has been a rarity this early in the season for them.

GGS 3 Stars
1. Logan Couture (1 goal, 3 shots)
2. Kyle Okposo (1 goal)
3. Antti Niemi (19 saves)