With San Jose
’s 1-0 victory in Denver Monday night setting the Sharks up with
an all-but-insurmountable 3-0 Western Conference semifinal series
lead in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Game 2 may well have been a
turning point in the Sharks’ playoff run.
Rough-and-tumble NHL playoff hockey made its first real appearance at HP Pavilion last weekend.
And, the Sharks just kept right on skating.
With San Jose’s 1-0 victory in Denver Monday night setting the Sharks up with an all-but-insurmountable 3-0 Western Conference semifinal series lead in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Game 2 may well have been a turning point in the Sharks’ playoff run.
After a mostly congenial opening-round series against St. Louis and a 5-2 blowout against Colorado in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, things got serious between the Stanley Cup battle-tested Avalanche and the hometown Sharks during Saturday’s Game 2.
The truth is, Game 2 really started in the last moments of Game 1 when the Avs’ Matthew Barnaby instigated one of three simultaneous fights in an effort to shake his team out of the doldrums against an aggressive Sharks team.
And, early in Game 2, it worked. The Sharks, who are the higher-seeded team but no one’s favorite at series start, were the team on its heels as the Avs took a 1-0 lead and held it midway through the second period of a penalty-filled game.
Meanwhile, the Shark Tank crowd, after lifting the roof off the place before Game 2, was curiously silent, almost seeming apprehensive at what they were seeing.
Colorado was sending a message and the Sharks were being tested.
If they failed the test, they might as well have stowed the pads and headed home.
The truth is, no matter how much the NHL tries to legislate rough play out of hockey, it will always be a key element.
Lord Stanley’s hardware requires a stout guardian and the Sharks were getting a gut check.
New GM Doug Wilson has earned the Sharks a reputation as a fast-skating team with skills but they’ll never win any thuggery contests.
The book on the Sharks for years has been: solid team but they can be muscled off their game.
Not this time.
Instead of reacting and blowing their cool along with Game 2, the Sharks responded with aplomb. Sure, they gave as good as they got from the Avs but they never went overboard.
As Sharks captain Vinnie Damphousse said after the game, “There’s a fine line between being aggressive and getting a penalty. You have to keep your cool.”
In fact, it was Damphousse who helpedc the Sharks capitalize on the over-aggressive Avalanche play to score the equalizer on a power play midway through that second period.
While Avs veteran Peter Forsberg was trying to fire his team up by high-sticking and running into Sharks goalkeeper Evgeni Nabokov, Damphousse just kept the Sharks skating.
The tide really turned the Sharks’ direction when Forsberg picked up his second penalty of the second period, and the previously quiet crowd roused itself and roared in protest.
The Sharks didn’t score on the subsequent power play but the crowd was into it from that point on.
Then, with just seconds left in the second period, the Avs let their guard down for just a second.
Left in front of the Colorado goal for what seemed like forever, the Sharks’ leading scorer Patrick Marleau — he of the Game 1 hat trick — wristed in the go-ahead goal.
It may have been the goal that melts the Avs for good this season.
In the third period, San Jose added one of the truly remarkable goals ever seen when Jonathan Cheechoo redirected a pass from Brad Stuart between his legs and into the Colorado goal.
After that, the unnerved Avs missed a couple of open-net chances, were forced to pull their goalie late in the contest and Wayne Primeau added an empty-netter for a 4-1 victory.
There’s an old American Indian symbol that shows a rabbit smoking a pipe. The story goes that the rabbit is smoking the pipe because he’s unafraid — he knows he’s faster and smarter than the other animals.
These Sharks may just be as smart, and fast, as those rabbits.
