Sharks-Blue Jackets: Despite an Off-Game, Sharks Squeak By Columbus

The Sharks improved their NHL record setting start Thursday night, beating the Columbus Blue-Jackets by a final score of 3-2.  The win upped their overall record to 22-3-1 and their home ice record to a ridiculous 14-0-1.

However, Thursday's game was a far cry from the first time these two teams met this season.  Back in early October, the Sharks ousted the Blue-Jackets in convincing fashion.  They beat Columbus 5-2 behind a pair of short-handed goals, one from Jonathan Cheechoo and another from Patrick Marleau.  The win gave the Sharks their first 4-0 start in franchise history.

After this past Thursday's game, Sharks' Head Coach Todd McLellan might have a little bit more criteria in which to lecture his team.  In the end, the Sharks won their ninth game in a row, but this one could have easily gone the other way.

Uncharacteristically this time around, the Sharks were the team on the wrong side of a lopsided shot total after the first period.  The Blue Jackets came away with a 1-0 lead after the first 20 minutes and out-shot the Sharks by more than a 3-1 margin, out-shooting them 14-4.

Rick Nash finally got credit for the game's first goal at 16:38 of the first when his wrist shot from the top of the near circle was perfectly deflected into the Sharks' net.  Of course, Dan Boyle didn't mean to direct the puck into his own goal, but that's the way the puck was bouncing for the Sharks in the first period.  However, it had to take some sort of funny bounce for Columbus to score as Evgeni Nabokov made save after save including 2-3 of the spectacular variety in the opening 20 minutes.

The Sharks started to pick things up in the second period.  San Jose edged Columbus in shots in the middle period, 9-8, but only came up with one goal to show for it.  They were on a 5-on-3 power-play for 1:40 at 8:37 of the period, but were unable to tie the score. 

McLellan, upset with the power-play set up, threw the old veteran, Jeremy Roenick out on the man-advantage (I was also calling for this to happen from my seats, high up in section 220) and it paid off.  The Sharks would tie things up with that power-play shift, as Patrick Marleau scored at 14:57 of the second, making it a 1-1 game.  Assists on the play would go to Boyle and Vlasic, but JR did some nice work along the boards and managed to get the puck back to Vlasic to start the scoring play.

The Sharks would go back on the power-play at 19:51 of the middle period when Jason Chimera was penalized for delay game, which apparently is now called "puck over glass" to be more specific.

San Jose was unable to get a chance in the final eight seconds, but they cashed in with another power-play goal to start the third period.  This time it was Jeremy Roenick cashing in and getting his name on the score-sheet.  Roenick was all alone in front of the net and 44 seconds in, gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead.  Jr deposited a rebound off a Joe Thornton shot, putting it top corner on the glove-side of Columbus goalie Steve Mason.

Columbus wasn't done though, they bounced back almost exactly three minutes later on a great individual play by Blue Jacket forward Fredrick Modin.  Modin made the score 2-2 at 3:45 of the final period when he made a strong move to the net from the corner boards and avoided Rob Blake as he slipped one low, on the far-side, past Nabokov.

Throughout this game, the Blue Jackets controlled the pace by keeping the puck away from the Sharks' big guns.  However, they weren't able to keep Joe Thornton from putting home the game winner as Big Joe scored the go-ahead goal at 7:41 of the third. 

As the puck got centered blindly to the point by Setoguchi, Vlasic caught up to it at the top of the circle, turned, and wristed one towards the net.  The puck bounced around and got knocked up a couple feet in the air where Thornton located it and batted it into the open net. 

The Sharks were able to fend off a 6-on-4 Columbus advantage in the last minute of the game when Marc-Eduard Vlasic made a terrible attempt at clearing the puck and put it into the seats. 

I'll give some credit to Marc-Eduard though, he did have assists, chipping in on all three Sharks' goals and was named the third star of the game.

However, the Sharks need to pick things up because they got a feisty Oilers team coming into the Shark tank on Saturday.