Sharks-Stars: Evgeni Nabokov May Be on the Lam

The San Jose Sharks had better get Evgeni Nabokov out of town under cover of darkness. Tuesday morning, Dallas police may be called in to investigate and the district attorney’s office should be seeking a warrant for felony theft after that effort.

Before the game, we found out that on top of all other players Dallas had out, they would be without the face of the team, Mike Modano, because of the flu. The Stars’ stars are (in order on my opinion) Brenden Morrow (injured reserve—IR), Marty Turco (playing), Sergei Zubov (IR), Mike Ribeiro (playing), Brad Richards (out for 6-8 weeks), and Mike Modano (flu). They were also missing Landon Wilson (IR).

Meanwhile, the Sharks got Brad Lukowich back, and Jeremy Roenick, Jody Shelley, and Tomas Plihal already had returned. The only players out for San Jose were Marcel Goc and Torrey Mitchell—i.e. San Jose had all their stars and most of their supporting cast.

Up against the best team in the league, this would be no contest, right? Wrong!

The Stars came out and controlled play in the first period, out-shooting the Sharks 11-5, despite taking two penalties to the Sharks one. Play went end-to-end but scoring chances were hard to find.

The second period was also tight, with the Sharks killing two penalties to the Stars’ one. Both teams had eight shots on goal, but the better scoring opportunities belonged to Dallas. Through all of it, Nabby held down the fort.

In their previous five road games in February, the Sharks had never gotten the first goal. But in the third period, they got their legs under them, finally out-shooting their opponents 11-10. It was not enough to avoid being the first time in 22 games that the Sharks were out-shot, but it was enough to get a goal.

With just over 12 minutes to play, Christian Ehrhoff took the puck from behind his goalline and let go an outlet pass to Ryane Clowe at the blueline. Before Clowe got to the centre line, he passed ahead to Devin Setoguchi as he approached the offensive zone. Seto cut inside to turn Darryl Sydor around at the blueline, dipped back to the outside to avoid Ribeiro, and let go a wrister from the back of the faceoff circle that beat Turco off the far post stick side.

Turco fell back into the net in dismay, almost prophetically announcing there would be no more scoring. But that almost was not the case.

On the very next shift, Lukowich was whistled for interference behind the play as the Sharks were headed for the offensive zone. It took just over 10 seconds for that same “ping” of the post to be heard, but Stephane Robidas’ shot did not have the favourable bounce Seto’s did, ricocheting to the halfboards on the far side.

The Sharks would suffer a couple other tense moments in the closing seconds, but the defence was up to the challenge, clogging the shooting lanes and holding the Stars without a shot for the final 2:52, even without a formal blocked shot. In all, they out-blocked the Stars 17-16, out-hit them 45-37, beat them in the faceoff circle 24-19, and had half the giveaways (7-14) of their foes.

My three stars:

1. Evgeni Nabokov is the obvious choice for top star, turning away all 29 shots he faced and looking to be Turco’s equal in handling the puck to support his defence.
2. Marty Turco was almost Nabby’s equal in net, saving 23 of 24 (.958)
3. Devin Setoguchi was the only man who could beat a goalie all night, and he also played well defensively with three hits; I almost gave it to Clowe for the assist and his astounding nine hits, but the assist was not what brought the goal, Seto’s moves and wicked shot were.

Some Other Articles That You May Enjoy:
Ducks-Sharks: Game 6 Preview
Sharks Still on Life Support
Coyotes Become Chum: Lose 2-0 and Reinprecht
Nabokov’s Olympic Mask – What a Beauty
Sharks-Stars: Another Flat Performance by San Jose
Sharks-Thrashers: Third Period the Difference

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