One Step Closer to a Shark Solution
Any loss is still a loss but I feel a little better about this one. After gettin our helmets handed to us in the 3 game debacle of a series, we really played a hell of a game this time.
It was a duel in the desert, a goalie showdown basically, as both netminders were superb all night. It came down to which team would blink first. Unfortunately, we did but a 1 - 0 loss is a whole lot better than any script I could have written coming into this game.
Keys to the game - keeping JoeT in a very small box, keepin Mimi from getting loose, thumpin Bernier and stayin away from Grier. Notice I didn’t say solving the resident alien in the net…these are keys to the game not impossible dreams. Well folks, I’m here to tell ya, we did almost every one of those keys to a very substantial amount.
The Sharks pressed hard on all fronts. We matched them step for step. I can’t take you frame by frame thru this one, it was too intense and too close. Momentum rocked back and forth, shots exchanged were nearly identical, we had 26 they had 27, no cheap and easy PPs (the refs let these guys play hockey) and face off percentages also were within 5% of even for both sides.
This was a game! 0 - 0 through the first period. We actually came to play, there wasn’t one whipped dawg on the ice. 0 - 0 through the first 19+ minutes of the second period and then… Joe Thornton, who is a force of nature all by himself, finally got where he often works best (behind the net) fighting off all comers until Milan Michalek could slip free and into the low slot area. It was the Mimi and Joe show once again as Milan banged one into Bryz’s chest that trickled under his arm and into the net. Late period back breaker of a goal 1 - 0 Sharks.
You would think based on past performances that the Sharks would be able to take off and rout us in the third period, but the dawgs could almost taste a come back. They had all the keys under control and were getting the puck on net in their best Don Quixote manner. But Nabby was having none of it. The dawgs are going to have to get sneakier sogs if they plan on doin any damage to the Nabakov force field. 1 - 0 final Sharks… again…
The third period gave us all a collective heart palpitation when DMo was hit in the forehead above the eye with a shot. The interpid blue line leader headed in for 10 stitches and was back on the ice like a true warrior.
Gonna add another key to the list, study tapes of the Kings/Sharks games… the Kings can’t solve Bryz but they seem to have Nabby’s number this season… I don’t know what kinda bait they have been using to land that whopper but we better find out… and get us some.
PB has a good entry up:
http://www.onefansperspective.com/2007/12/coyotes-lose-close-one-against-sharks.html#links
BTinAZ got some good shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302501@N02/sets/72157603408862089/
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