BOX SCORE
VANCOUVERThe fourth and final meeting of the regular season between the Sharks and Canucks was a good showcase of how beautiful the game of hockey can be between two highly skilled teams.It was an ugly goal by Cody Hodgson with just over four minutes left in regulation, though, that was the difference in a 4-3 Vancouver win over the Sharks on Saturday afternoon at Rogers Arena.Hodgson, standing below the goal line, threw the puck towards the front of the net where it deflected off of Michal Handzus stick and through Antti Niemi with 4:17 left. It was his second goal of the afternoon.Bad luck?
I guess so, Handzus said. I knew he might throw it there, so I kind of got ready and got my stick down and it just bounced over right to a little spot and just went in.I thought it was going to be in the middle of the crease, and it never got there, Niemi said.McLellan would have liked to see Niemi make the save, despite the deflection.There are some variables that play into it, but wed still like that save, obviously, McLellan said. And so would he.The goal capped a furious finish in which the teams combined for three late scores in just one minute and 32 seconds, after being tied at 2-2 for most of the third.The Canucks took a 3-2 lead when Ryan Kesler sped in on a two-on-one and took the shot himself, flipping it over the far shoulder of Niemi at 14:11.The Sharks responded just 36 seconds later. Joe Pavelski fed Dan Boyle in front of the net, and Boyle slipped in his own rebound to re-tie it.McLellan was displeased with the Kesler goal, too, as forwards Handzus and Jamie McGinn were caught chasing the odd-man rush that also included Chris Higgins after Boyle decided to pinch and Handzus wrist shot missed the net.Weve addressed that over the last little bit. We want our D to be aggressive. They still need to read certain plays, but we spent some time in practice over the last little bit working on that exact situation, McLellan said. It came back to bite us.Handzus, who was a game-worst -3, said: Me as a forward, Ive got to be better to recover for our D. Sometimes they are pinching to keep the pucks, but weve got to be better to come back and recover for them. It was not a really good mistake with five minutes left, on our end.The Sharks wasted a two-goal effort from Logan Couture in losing back-to-back in regulation for the first time since Dec. 3-6. San Jose dropped a 4-1 decision at home to Ottawa on Thursday.San Jose concluded its season series against the team that knocked it from the playoffs in the Western Conference Final last year with a 1-2-1 recordits lone victory coming via the shootout on Jan. 2. Including Saturday, every game was decided by just one goal.Both of us are good teams; two of the better teams in the Western Conference, Couture said. Tough games. Youve got to enjoy playing these games, though, they are fun to be a part of with such great teams playing each other.Joe Thornton said: It was a good game. A couple weird bounces at the end. Theyre always one-goal games, and it would have been nice to grab a couple points out of this one. It was a tough one tonight.The Canucks had all of the early energy, and quickly jumped ahead when David Booth redirected Alex Edlers blast from the point just 66 seconds in.Vancouver continued to pressure the Sharks in their zone, and threatened to increase their lead when the Sharks were called for too many men on the ice at 14:45, putting the Canucks league-leading power play on the ice.Instead, it was Couture who converted a shorthanded breakaway at 15:54 after Andrew Desjardins took advantage of a Dan Hamhuis giveaway and sprung the Sharks leading goal scorer. Couture had to hold off a back-checking Kevin Bieksa before he made Roberto Luongo look silly.I had to protect the puck from Bieksa. I looked up, made a move to my forehand and Luongo slid out of the net, so went back to the backhand and was able to put it home, Couture said.The Sharks began the second period with power play time left on the clock after a late first period tripping call to Daniel Sedin. Couture took a pass from Joe Thornton and his sneaky backhand beat Luongo to the short side for his 20th goal of the season, giving San Jose its first lead.Vancouver tied it soon after, though. A shot by Mason Raymond never made it to Niemi, instead deflecting to Hodgson for a goal at 4:29.The Sharks won the special teams battle, scoring on their only power play and killing off all four of Vancouvers advantages.Yeah, but theyre not going to give us two points for that, so we can throw that out the window, McLellan said, before adding, our power play and penalty kill was very strong against a very sharp, well-coached group of special teams players.Were trying to play our system, and I thought it was right on page right from the start, Handzus said.The intensity picked up from there, particularly at the end of the second, and it was the Sharks doing most of the hitting. McGinn drilled Hamhuis along the boards at the Sharks bench, and the Canucks defenseman had trouble retrieving his stick while the Sharks players humorously played keep-away.Later, Brad Winchester ran Alex Burrows behind the Sharks net, and then a fight broke out between surprise combatant Pavelski and Keith Ballard with 6.8 seconds to go. It was Pavelski's second career fight.Luongo made 23 saves, becoming the Canucks all-time winningest goaltender with his 212th win, passing Kirk McLean. Niemi made 26 saves to suffer the loss.The Sharks play back-to-back in Edmonton and Calgary on Monday and Tuesday in their final two games before the All-Star break.Odds and ends: Couture recorded his seventh career two-goal game. Hes never had a hat trick.The Sharks made a number of roster moves before the game. Frazer McLaren, who cleared waivers, was reassigned to Worcester while John McCarthy was recalled. Defenseman Jim Vandermeer was activated but did not play, while Tommy Wingels was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury.Colin White played his second straight game in place of a healthy Jason Demers.Andrew Desjardins took Wingels spot on the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, while Couture skated with Patrick Marleau and Benn Ferriero for most of the afternoon.San Jose won 29 faceoffs but lost 31.Hits were even, 31-31.
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