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Sharks win but may have been severely wounded
By Jeremy Harness March 27, 2010 |
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SAN JOSE - The Sharks’ potential run in this year’s playoffs may have taken a devastating blow Saturday night. With the Sharks nursing a two-goal lead late in the second period against the Vancouver Canucks, center Joe Thornton crashed awkwardly into the boards, and he stayed down on the ice for a couple of minutes. After rising to his feet, he had to be assisted to the Sharks’ bench, doubled over and not able to put very much weight on his right leg. San Jose held on to a 4-2 win at HP Pavilion thanks to a three-goal flurry in that fateful middle period, but concern for Thornton’s health and availability for the rest of the season - including the all-important postseason during which the Sharks are looking to erase the embarrassment of last year’s early exit - clearly overshadowed the game’s outcome. Officially, Thornton left the game with what was called a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day. However, Sharks coach Todd McLellan could not give any more details on his condition, saying that more will be known following the team’s practice skate on Sunday. “He’s a very durable player, but he’s human,” McLellan said of Thornton, who once played in a playoff series with two cracked ribs during his years with the Boston Bruins. “That’s part of the game. I think I talked about not playing careful, and we can’t be like that. Everybody’s got to compete hard, and when you (lose focus), you expose yourself.” If that wasn’t enough, Manny Malhotra took a direct hit to his face by a screaming desperation slap shot in the final seconds of the game, forcing him to quickly exit the ice with blood free-flowing from his face. Although it looked quite scary, McLellan said Malhotra was fine, adding that “it was a lot better than it looked.” After Vancouver jumped out to an early lead in the first period, the Sharks got things in gear in the second, thanks to a power play that was capped off when Dany Heatley fired a hard one over goalie Roberto Luongo’s shoulder to tie the game at 3:01. Patrick Marleau, ever the playmaker gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead at 9:29 when he stole the puck from Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler at the San Jose blue line and raced to the net, putting a brilliant move on Luongo before flipping it in. From there, as is their trademark, the Sharks kept attacking the net, with their third goal at 11:30 slightly having the look of a different sport. As the puck was in mid-air right in front of the net, Joe Pavelski raised his stick - it was below his shoulder, so it was allowed - and whacked the puck past Luongo as it were a belt-high fastball. The Canucks narrowed the gap to a single goal by scoring on a power play early in the third period and would have tied the game at 9:25 had it not been for a fantastic sprawling save by Nabokov of a point-blank shot at the net. San Jose, which widened its lead for the Western Conference’s top seed to three points over idle Chicago, added an empty-netter by Ryane Clowe with 11 seconds remaining to close out the Canucks. |
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