Tim Chiasson

Halifax • Canada • 33 Years Old • Male

Sharks Stun Canucks Late For Another Win

This quote by head coach Todd McLellan pretty much sums up the game for the Sharks.

"We weren't the better team tonight and we have been on the other end of that where we were the better team and found a way not to win it. Tonight we found a way to come back."

The Sharks weren't the better team, fact. Vancouver dominated most of the play for 50 minutes, fact. The Sharks won, fact.

Antti Niemi did what he does best in this one: give the Sharks a chance to win. With the offense all dried up, the Sharks goaltender held down the braided bungalow and gave his team an opportunity to steal a win out from underneath the Vancouver Canucks.

With a little luck the puck ended up on Tomas Hertl's blade and the young Czech buried it past an out of position Roberto Luongo to tie the game late in the third. In overtime it was Dan Boyle with the winner, despite the zebra's initial reaction of no-goal. I've been pretty hard on Boyle for his defensive blunders but I acknowledge his offensive help of late has been refreshing on an otherwise less than productive blueline.

The Sharks were able to keep the Sedin twins off the scoresheet, save for an assist, so I will chalk that up as a success. I was a little disappointed in Henrik Sedin's comments after the game about his hooking penalty. Those are the types of penalties you have to just acknowledge that it was a stupid play and suck it up. That's a call that the league has been pretty consistent in calling no matter what time of the game it is.

The Sharks now head to Edmonton with a two-game win streak looking to extend it to three against the trainwreck organization east of Vancouver. As awful as the Oilers are there is no denying they have offensive talent, so the Sharks tenders will have to be on top of their game again tonight. There are no real keys to playing the second of back-to-back road games other than keep it simple.

Last night's win moved San Jose to 2nd in the Pacific Division, two points behind division leader Anaheim with two games in hand. It also moved the Sharks to third in the Western Conference. Despite the five game skid, the Sharks haven't lost much place in the West after getting back to back wins this week.

Tomas Hertl continued his hot streak, which now stands at 6 points in his last 5 games. It wasn't that long ago that media types were announcing the end of Hertl's honeymoon start after the youngester (rookie) had a 6 game stretch that saw him notch only one goal and no assists. Rookies have ups and downs, it's going to happen, but the good news for Hertl and the Sharks is that he has an opportunity to log many minutes with quality players. Hertl leads the Calder race right now and holds a 5 point lead over top picks Nathan MacKinnon and Sean Monahan in the rookie scoring race.

Puck drop is at 10ET tonight and I may or may not live blog the game. You'll have to check back to find out I guess. Thanks for reading and I hope you're getting a little bit of a Shark fix while Cam and Ryan are MIA. Stay ice, Sharks fans.