Sharks shade Giguere, Maple Leafs
Toronto goalie's shutout streak ends at 143 minutes
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | 1:31 AM ET
By Justin Piercy, CBC Sports
J.S. Giguere's perfect run as a Toronto Maple Leaf is over.
Through a series of deflections and funny bounces, the San Jose Sharks snapped Giguere's shutout streak and handed him his first loss wearing the blue and white, a 3-2 decision on Monday in Toronto.
Tied 2-2 into the late stages of the third period, the Sharks' Ryan Clowe scored the winner with 6:39 to go, also giving the Leafs (19-30-11) their eighth loss in their last 10 games.
It was the fourth win in five games for San Jose (39-11-9).
Despite the loss to one of the NHL's top road teams — the Sharks now boast a record of nine straight wins as the visitors — Toronto came out firing on all cylinders, out-shooting, out-hitting and out-scoring the Sharks in the first period.
"Obviously we weren't very good in the first period, we were in sand, clearly outworked," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "I tried to spark the team somehow by shuffling lines, trying some different things. I'm not even sure that worked until the third period, but we found a way to win. It wasn't our best effort by any means."
That extra jump may have been due to some of the young blood in the Leafs' lineup. With forwards Fredrik Sjostrom and Christian Hanson out sick with the flu, Nazem Kadri was called up from the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League for his first NHL appearance, and he made an immediate impression.
"He skated well," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said of the 2009 first-round draft pick. "This was a great opportunity for him, to see what the NHL is all about. He had a lot of turnovers. And things he can probably get away with in junior hockey, you can't get away with in our league, let alone against a top team in the league."
On the 19-year-old's very first shift — which happened to be on the starting line — Kadri launched a no-look pass from just inside the Toronto blue-line to Viktor Stalberg in the neutral zone. Stalberg, sprung on a partial breakaway, was the first to test Evgeni Nabokov with a hard slapper that the Russian goalie smothered.
It was the beginning of a busy period for Nabokov, who faced 13 shots compared to the seven sent toward Giguere in the opening frame.
As for the physical play, Dion Phaneuf acquainted himself with San Jose stars early by laying out Dany Heatley with a big shoulder check in the Leafs zone just minutes into the game.
By the midway point of the period, Toronto's Colton Orr and San Jose's Jody Shelley got into a tussle off a face-off in the Leafs end. Shelley may have knocked down the Leafs' tough-guy in short order with a booming right hand, but mere seconds after that dust up, the Leafs were the first ones on the scoreboard.
With Alexei Ponikarovski pressuring Rob Blake behind the Sharks' goal, Phil Kessel picked up the turnover, made his way to the front of the net and slid a quick pass over to a wide-open Tyler Bozak.
The rookie centre tapped the puck into the empty half of the net for his third goal of the season and a 1-0 lead at the 10:43 mark of the first.
Bozak almost had his second point of the night just over a minute into the second period when he delivered a pass to Ponikarovsky, whose slapper bounced off the crossbar and dribbled out of the crease.
Bad bounces erase Giguere's streak, Leafs' lead
A span of less than three minutes saw both the Leafs lead and the shutout streak of Giguere erased. A deflected shot by Sharks defenceman Dan Boyle snapped the Toronto goalie's unbeaten mark at 143:17.
"I thought we outplayed a pretty good team," Giguere said. "They're obviously one of the better teams in this league, and being as young as we are, being able to outplay them is a really good sign for us."
The 32-year-old netminder is the first person in Leafs history to post shutouts in both of his first two matches, beating New Jersey Devils 3-0 and the Ottawa 5-0.
Boyle's shot from the blue-line bounced off the stick of Toronto's John Mitchell and over the glove of Giguere to tie the game, and 2:23 later the Sharks doubled their goal total when Joe Pavelski was the beneficiary of a giveaway by Kessel in the Toronto zone.
As Kessel lost a pass in his skates, San Jose's Ryan Clowe picked up the puck and sent it to Pavelski, whose low shot from the high-slot eluded Giguere on the blocker side.
Some good pressure by the Leafs top line with just over four minutes to go nearly knotted the game at two, but Nabokov was able to deny Ponikarovski from point blank.
As a Tomas Kaberle shot from the point was knocked down by the Sharks 'keeper, the rebound was picked up by Ponikarovski at the side of the goal, who tried to deke around the prone goalie but a poke check dispatched that scoring chance.
Phaneuf's physical play made an impact in the late stages of the second period, stepping into Jody Shelley at the Sharks bench and drawing an important penalty.
With the Sharks down a man, Kessel scored off a rebound chance that beat Nabokov under the blocker to make it 2-2 with 40 seconds to go in the middle frame, setting up a tight third period.
The winner came 6:39 into the third when Devin Setoguchi tried to centre the puck from behind the Toronto goal but had the puck bounce off the skate of Toronto's Carl Gunnarsson. That funny bounce sent the puck right onto the stick of Clowe, who snapped it past Giguere.
With the net empty, Kaberle saved a shot into the Leafs goal and allowed Stalberg to get two great chances right in front of the Sharks' goal, but Nabokov denied both with 10 seconds remaining to cement the win.
