Joe Thornton registered a goal and three
assists to lead San Jose to a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the
Shark Tank.
Devin Setoguchi, Dan Boyle, Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored
for the red-hot Sharks, who won their eighth consecutive game. Evgeni Nabokov
made 29 saves in the victory.
Nikolai Kulemin and Niklas Hagman scored for the Maple Leafs, who saw their
brief two-game win streak halted. Vesa Toskala allowed five goals on 30 shots
in the loss.
The game marked the return of longtime Sharks coach Ron Wilson to San Jose.
Wilson, who is currently coaching the Leafs, took over as head coach of San
Jose during the 2002-03 season and helped engineer a quick turnaround. After
finishing that season in last place in the Pacific Division, Wilson's Sharks
never finished lower than second place over the next four seasons and he is
the club's all-time leader in wins with 206. He was fired in May.
The Sharks quickly grabbed a 1-0 lead on Setoguchi's goal 1:15 into the
opening period. Thornton held control at the left point and fluttered a
backhand pass towards the near circle. Setoguchi swooped in, gained control
and lifted a soft backhander from near the left post that somehow found its
way past Toskala.
A rather strange sequence of events led to a 2-0 Sharks lead at the 6:35 mark
of the first period. A shot on goal missed high, hit the rear boards, bounced
back, hit the goaltender's water bottle on top of the net, then hit the
crossbar, bounced into the air and fell into the crease under Toskala. With
several players from both teams in the crease fighting for control of the
puck, one of Thornton's whacks was eventually enough and the disc slid
underneath the Toronto netminder and over the goal line.
"I thought it was going to stay on top of the net, and I took a bat at
it and it went in. Lucky bounce," said Thornton.
A pair of San Jose goals within a 68-second span in the latter stages of the
first period -- one by Boyle and a power-play tally by Vlasic -- pushed the
San Jose lead to 4-0.
"We came out real strong," said Thornton. "Really, the game was over after the
first 10 minutes. It was a good game by us."
Midway through the middle session, Kulemin got the Leafs on the scoreboard
with his fifth goal of the season via a rebound one-timer from the lower right
circle after a shot by Hagman from the high slot was saved.
At the four-minute mark of the final stanza, Pavelski's short-handed goal gave
San Jose a 5-1 advantage. Toronto blueliner Tomas Kaberle fell down while
skating backwards and the miscue led to a 2-on-1 break. Pavelski skated with
the puck down the right-wing side with Milan Michalek on the opposite wing.
Pavelski faked a pass across the slot, cradled the puck back to his forehand
and lit the lamp from inside the right circle.
Hagman's goal with 34 seconds remaining in regulation capped the scoring.
Game Notes
With this win, the Sharks set a league record for the most standings points
(43) after the first 25 games of a season...Setoguchi has 13 goals this
season...San Jose is 21-3-1 in 2008-09 and has not lost in regulation since
November 9 at Phoenix...The Sharks were 1-for-3 on the power play, while the
Leafs were held scoreless on their four chances with the extra skater.
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