After enduring a grueling seven-game series in the first round, the San Jose Sharks on Friday predictably needed some time to find their legs again at the start of round two. One key penalty kill proved to be just the kick start they needed.
Joe Thornton sparked a three-goal outburst in the second period after San Jose killed off a four-minute penalty, leading the Sharks to a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1.
“The first period was a struggle, to be honest with you,” Thornton said. “I don’t think we had too much early on, but we kind of felt our groove as the middle of the game went on.”
Photo: AP
San Jose trailed 2-1 when Brenden Dillon was called for a high-sticking double minor. The Sharks managed to kill both penalties and then took over with a strong performance from the third line.
“That was a game-changer,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “We needed that. We talked going into the playoffs and after the first round that our special teams were going to have to win us games. We won one with the power play last game and I thought our penalty kill was a big part of it tonight.”
Thornton tied it midway through the period off a feed from Marcus Sorensen on a two-on-one rush shortly after the penalty was killed.
Kevin Labanc, the third member of the line, gave the Sharks the lead with an impressive sequence that featured him playing the puck through Mikko Rantanen’s legs before scoring from the slot.
Brent Burns added the fourth goal late in the period, when his shot from the boards deflected past Philipp Grubauer with Sorensen in front of the net.
Gustav Nyquist scored the first goal for San Jose, Timo Meier added an empty-netter and Martin Jones made 26 saves to send the Sharks to their fourth straight win.
“It can be tough obviously after a Game 7 like that, but we did a great job,” Jones said. “We hung in there early in the game, and I really liked the job we did in the third. We were grinding them in the O-zone and we didn’t really give them much.”
Game 2 is today in San Jose, California.
Gabriel Bourque and Colin Wilson scored for the Avalanche, who were unable to carry over the momentum from a dominant first-round win against Pacific Division champions Calgary.
“We took five or 10 minutes off in the second and it cost us,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said.
HURRICANES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT
Jordan Staal got the Carolina Hurricanes off to a winning start in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Staal scored 4 minutes, 4 seconds into overtime to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 victory over the New York Islanders in their series opener.
Nino Niederreiter sent a shot that caromed off the end boards and came out to the right side, where Staal quickly put it in off Robin Lehner’s left skate.
“I had a little room to kind of get a quick-as-I-could shot off,” Staal said about his first career playoff overtime goal. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure it went in. I just saw some people celebrating, so I started celebrating, too.”
Petr Mrazek stopped 31 shots for his fifth career post-season shutout as Carolina won in New York just 48 hours after beating defending champions Washington on the road in double-overtime of Game 7 of their first-round series.
The Hurricanes knew they needed to quickly put the victory over the Capitals behind them.
“That was our biggest goal for this game, after that big emotion and happiness,” Carolina’s Sebastian Aho said. “Try to push that aside and try to focus on this game, and we did it really well.”
Back in Brooklyn after opening the playoffs at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, the Islanders were playing for the first time in 10 days after finishing off their first-round sweep of Pittsburgh.
“Not the result we wanted,” said Lehner, who has given up just one goal in four games. “Small details — small margins in the playoffs. I thought we played a good game.”
Game 2 is back at Barclays Center today.
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