Who says they don’t have shootouts in the playoffs? Trailing by
four goals early in the second period Tuesday night, the Sharks
became only the fourth team in NHL history to overcome that big a
deficit to win a Stanley Cup playoff game when Devin Setoguchi’s
goal at 3:09 of overtime gave San Jose a near-miraculous 6-5
victory over the Los Angeles Kings
Story by David Pollak, San Jose Mercury News
LOS ANGELES
Who says they don’t have shootouts in the playoffs?
Trailing by four goals early in the second period Tuesday night, the Sharks became only the fourth team in NHL history to overcome that big a deficit to win a Stanley Cup playoff game when Devin Setoguchi’s goal at 3:09 of overtime gave San Jose a near-miraculous 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
“I saw a chance to shoot the puck,” Setoguchi said in describing the moment he took a pass from Patrick Marleau and fired it past Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. “I tried to get it off as quick as I could — I knew he was moving across the crease.”
The win gave the Sharks a 2-1 edge in their Western Conference series, with Game 4 set for Thursday night at Staples Center.
“We showed our resiliency as a team,” a grinning Logan Couture said as he sat on the floor in the corridor outside the Sharks locker room. “No one gave up. No one quit. We just kept battling. We were deflated, but no one quit.”
The Kings chased Antti Niemi to the bench 44 seconds into the second period with goals by Willie Mitchell, Kyle Clifford, Michal Handzus and Brad Richardson on their first 10 shots, but backup Antero Niittymaki let only one shot by Ryan Smyth past him of the 12 he faced after that.
But from that point on, the Sharks offense — shut out in a Game 2 loss — exploded.
After being held without a goal for more than 83 minutes spanning two games, the Sharks scored five times in less than 17 minutes. Ryane Clowe netted two goals, and Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski each scored one.
The Sharks were in a deep hole early.
The Kings needed just 2:26 to dent whatever confidence San Jose was trying to regain after a 4-0 humiliation in Game 2. What looked like a harmless shot by Mitchell from the left faceoff circle ended up beating Niemi. Thirteen seconds later, a centering pass caromed off Clifford’s stick past Niemi to give the Kings a 2-0 lead.
The Kings increased their lead to 3-0 at 18:22 of the first period when an exit pass by the Sharks’ Marc-Edouard Vlasic went off Dan Boyle’s skate and Handzus fired a shot that sneaked between Niemi’s glove and pad.
Things would get worse before they got better.
In the opening minute of the second period, Niemi gave up a goal to Richardson, and Sharks coach Todd McLellan had seen enough. He yanked Niemi and sent in Niittymaki — who had only played twice since Jan. 13 — with the Sharks trailing 4-0.
Then came the comeback.
First Marleau redirected a pass from Boyle at the blue line past Quick at 3:08. San Jose made it a 4-2 game less than four minutes later with their first power-play goal of the series when Clowe’s shot from the right faceoff circle deflected off Mitchell and past Quick.
The Sharks pulled within one at 13:32 when Couture’s one-timer sailed past Quick, but it took Los Angeles only 15 seconds to restore its two-goal advantage when Smyth converted a cross-ice pass.
But San Jose continued to apply heavy pressure, and it paid off twice before the period ended in a 5-5 tie — first when Boyle found Clowe all alone in the left faceoff circle at 18:35 and again when Pavelski took a pass from Ian White, headed through the slot and chipped the puck over Quick at 19:29.
Three other NHL teams had come back from four-goal deficits, but only one — the Kings — had come back from five down, beating the Edmonton Oilers on April 10, 1982, by that same 6-5 score in a game that became known as the Miracle on Manchester.
“It’s crazy,” Setoguchi said. “Before the game I was looking at the TV and it was the commercial, “history will be made,” and it was the 5-0 game when the Kings came back. It’s kind of ironic that we came back from 4-0 tonight. Give the guys a lot of credit. We worked hard.”
