Friday, April 14, 2006
View from the Red Road
View from the Red Road
Sharks Finish Off Vancouver, 5-3
Cheechoo Scores Two
April 13, 2006
In a rematch of last night’s playoff clinching victory, the San Jose Sharks returned home to take on the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night at HP Pavilion. Midway through the second period, Sean Brown hooked Nils Ekman and the Sharks headed back on the power play. Just 44 seconds into the advantage Jonathon Cheechoo added his 52nd goal of the season. Tom Preissing sent a slapshot on goal that went just wide of the net. Cheechoo was crashing the net and found the puck as it came back off the end board in front of Auld and with one hand on his stick he tipped it past the netminder to tie the game at 2. But with 3:11 left in the second Ekman was penalized for hooking and Vancouver would make them pay. Bertuzzi was able to go five-hole after a loose puck left Nabokov defenseless. The Canucks now led 3-2. As they did in the second period, the Sharks began the third period with 21 seconds remaining on the power play. The Canucks were able to kill the Sharks brief time with the man advantage with relative ease. The two teams would play cautiously on both sides of the puck for a couple of minutes when, with 15:24 remaining in the third, an innocent turnover by the Canucks at their line would spring the Sharks. Kyle McLaren picked off a pass just on the Vancouver side of the red line and quickly moved the puck to Marcel Goc. Goc made a strong play and then a tape-to-tape pass, finding a streaking Ville Nieminen. As Nieminen moved through the zone, he cut inside the defenseman and headed towards the net. He then made a move to the center of the net and beat Alex Auld on the short side to tie the game. As he did twice in last night’s contest, Joe Thornton found the trailing defenseman and Carle buried the puck over Auld’s right shoulder with 8:26 remaining. The Sharks led 4-3, their first lead of the game.
With 1:26 left in the contest the Canucks pulled Auld in favor of the extra attacker. Vancouver needed another goal in order to save their season, but an empty net goal by Cheechoo with 16 seconds put an end to that and the Sharks skated off with the 5-3 victory.
Sharks Gaining In Playoff Race And Individual Races;
Cheechoo Gets Two More
April 14, 2006
http://www.sjsharks.com/news/news.asp?story_id=2292
With Thursday’s 5-3 victory, the Sharks tied a franchise record for their longest winning streak, and also set the longest winning streak for this season, at 7-0. However, it was their improvement in numerous races that made the most news. First and foremost, the Sharks took advantage of Anaheim’s loss and jumped into sole possession of fifth place in the Western Conference standings. Not bad for a team that stood in 12th place back in November. “Two months ago, nobody would have thought we would be here,” said Kyle McLaren. San Jose will try to protect their one-point lead on Anaheim and wrap up the fifth seed with a head-to-head battle on Saturday at 1 p.m. at HP Pavilion (FSN Bay Area, 98.5 KFOX, sjsharks.com). “It will be a hard fought battle, but we’ll be ready to play,” said Joe Thornton. “It will be a playoff atmosphere,” said Ron Wilson. Many feel that a playoff advantage would go to whoever earns the fifth seed as they would be facing Nashville minus Tomas Vokoun, however, the Sharks are much more concerned with how they are playing than who they are playing. Plus, reaching the fifth seed means that with the additional acquired points, there is always the potential of upsets that could provide home ice in later rounds. “The top seeds don’t always work out and you could have home ice in round two or three,” said Thornton. “We want to finish as high as we can.” “I’ve seen things in past years,” said Wilson. “If the top teams lose, you could have home ice. Maybe you won’t have home ice (at all in the West), but you could face an Eastern team in the finals and get home ice.” San Jose grabbed the victory despite playing their fourth game in five nights. “Obviously, we could have had a huge let down, but we didn’t,” said Joe Thornton. “We got some timely goals and San Jose also saw progress on two individual races. With his goals in the second and third periods, Jonathan Cheechoo extended his own franchise record to 53 goals. He is just one goal behind league leader Jaromir Jagr and both high-scoring wingers have two regular season contests remaining. Not to mention the fact that with his three-point night (2-1=3), Cheechoo passed Patrick Marleau for a new franchise record of 88 points in a single season.http://www.nhl.com/nhlstats/stats?service=page&context=Home
Jonathan Cheechoo #14
San Jose Sharks
April 14, 2006
Cheechoo is 2nd overall in Goals (53).
Cheechoo is 1st overall in Home Goals Scored At Home (28)
Cheechoo is 1st overall in Game Winning Goals (10)
Cheechoo is 4th overall in Power Play Goals (22)
Cheechoo is 5th overall in Short Handed Goals
Cheechoo is 5th overall in 1st Goal Scored In Games
Cheechoo is 9th overall in Total Points
If the playoffs were to If the playoffs started today, the San Jose Sharks would face the Nashville Predators in their first round of playoff action.
(Cheechoo will play Saturday against Anaheim and Monday against Los Angeles for the final two games of the regular season prior to the playoff race.)
Jonathan Cheechoo has now scored 46 goals since Joe Thornton was acquired and Thornton has assisted on 36 of Cheechoo’s 46 goals tallies since the trade. On Cheechoo’s second tally, it looked as though Cheechoo would get the primary assist on a Thornton goal, but Thornton had other plans. “My guy was right in front of me, so it was smart to give it to Joe,” said Cheechoo. “I just went to the net and he saw me.” Cheechoo in enjoying the goals because they are making a difference. “The goals mean nothing if you don’t win,” said Cheechoo. “I’m happy doing it. When people pay more attention to me, Joe finds other people.” Cheechoo’s response on the tongue-in-check question of whether the Thornton acquisition will work out. “I think it might,” laughed the Moose Factory native. THORNTON TIED FOR 1ST With his three assists against Vancouver, Joe Thornton made a dramatic jump into a tie with Jaromir Jagr for most points in the NHL, with 122. Thornton has posted at least one point in 45 out of his 56 contests with the Sharks, including registering 27 multi-point games. It was mentioned to Thornton that he might have a better chance at the league’s Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player if he and Jagr were in different media markets and the New York press was behind Thornton. “I like dealing with you guys better,” said Thornton. “I like it out here.”
Sharks Finish Off Vancouver, 5-3
Cheechoo Scores Two
April 13, 2006
In a rematch of last night’s playoff clinching victory, the San Jose Sharks returned home to take on the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night at HP Pavilion. Midway through the second period, Sean Brown hooked Nils Ekman and the Sharks headed back on the power play. Just 44 seconds into the advantage Jonathon Cheechoo added his 52nd goal of the season. Tom Preissing sent a slapshot on goal that went just wide of the net. Cheechoo was crashing the net and found the puck as it came back off the end board in front of Auld and with one hand on his stick he tipped it past the netminder to tie the game at 2. But with 3:11 left in the second Ekman was penalized for hooking and Vancouver would make them pay. Bertuzzi was able to go five-hole after a loose puck left Nabokov defenseless. The Canucks now led 3-2. As they did in the second period, the Sharks began the third period with 21 seconds remaining on the power play. The Canucks were able to kill the Sharks brief time with the man advantage with relative ease. The two teams would play cautiously on both sides of the puck for a couple of minutes when, with 15:24 remaining in the third, an innocent turnover by the Canucks at their line would spring the Sharks. Kyle McLaren picked off a pass just on the Vancouver side of the red line and quickly moved the puck to Marcel Goc. Goc made a strong play and then a tape-to-tape pass, finding a streaking Ville Nieminen. As Nieminen moved through the zone, he cut inside the defenseman and headed towards the net. He then made a move to the center of the net and beat Alex Auld on the short side to tie the game. As he did twice in last night’s contest, Joe Thornton found the trailing defenseman and Carle buried the puck over Auld’s right shoulder with 8:26 remaining. The Sharks led 4-3, their first lead of the game.
With 1:26 left in the contest the Canucks pulled Auld in favor of the extra attacker. Vancouver needed another goal in order to save their season, but an empty net goal by Cheechoo with 16 seconds put an end to that and the Sharks skated off with the 5-3 victory.
Sharks Gaining In Playoff Race And Individual Races;
Cheechoo Gets Two More
April 14, 2006
http://www.sjsharks.com/news/news.asp?story_id=2292
With Thursday’s 5-3 victory, the Sharks tied a franchise record for their longest winning streak, and also set the longest winning streak for this season, at 7-0. However, it was their improvement in numerous races that made the most news. First and foremost, the Sharks took advantage of Anaheim’s loss and jumped into sole possession of fifth place in the Western Conference standings. Not bad for a team that stood in 12th place back in November. “Two months ago, nobody would have thought we would be here,” said Kyle McLaren. San Jose will try to protect their one-point lead on Anaheim and wrap up the fifth seed with a head-to-head battle on Saturday at 1 p.m. at HP Pavilion (FSN Bay Area, 98.5 KFOX, sjsharks.com). “It will be a hard fought battle, but we’ll be ready to play,” said Joe Thornton. “It will be a playoff atmosphere,” said Ron Wilson. Many feel that a playoff advantage would go to whoever earns the fifth seed as they would be facing Nashville minus Tomas Vokoun, however, the Sharks are much more concerned with how they are playing than who they are playing. Plus, reaching the fifth seed means that with the additional acquired points, there is always the potential of upsets that could provide home ice in later rounds. “The top seeds don’t always work out and you could have home ice in round two or three,” said Thornton. “We want to finish as high as we can.” “I’ve seen things in past years,” said Wilson. “If the top teams lose, you could have home ice. Maybe you won’t have home ice (at all in the West), but you could face an Eastern team in the finals and get home ice.” San Jose grabbed the victory despite playing their fourth game in five nights. “Obviously, we could have had a huge let down, but we didn’t,” said Joe Thornton. “We got some timely goals and San Jose also saw progress on two individual races. With his goals in the second and third periods, Jonathan Cheechoo extended his own franchise record to 53 goals. He is just one goal behind league leader Jaromir Jagr and both high-scoring wingers have two regular season contests remaining. Not to mention the fact that with his three-point night (2-1=3), Cheechoo passed Patrick Marleau for a new franchise record of 88 points in a single season.http://www.nhl.com/nhlstats/stats?service=page&context=Home
Jonathan Cheechoo #14
San Jose Sharks
April 14, 2006
Cheechoo is 2nd overall in Goals (53).
Cheechoo is 1st overall in Home Goals Scored At Home (28)
Cheechoo is 1st overall in Game Winning Goals (10)
Cheechoo is 4th overall in Power Play Goals (22)
Cheechoo is 5th overall in Short Handed Goals
Cheechoo is 5th overall in 1st Goal Scored In Games
Cheechoo is 9th overall in Total Points
If the playoffs were to If the playoffs started today, the San Jose Sharks would face the Nashville Predators in their first round of playoff action.
(Cheechoo will play Saturday against Anaheim and Monday against Los Angeles for the final two games of the regular season prior to the playoff race.)
Jonathan Cheechoo has now scored 46 goals since Joe Thornton was acquired and Thornton has assisted on 36 of Cheechoo’s 46 goals tallies since the trade. On Cheechoo’s second tally, it looked as though Cheechoo would get the primary assist on a Thornton goal, but Thornton had other plans. “My guy was right in front of me, so it was smart to give it to Joe,” said Cheechoo. “I just went to the net and he saw me.” Cheechoo in enjoying the goals because they are making a difference. “The goals mean nothing if you don’t win,” said Cheechoo. “I’m happy doing it. When people pay more attention to me, Joe finds other people.” Cheechoo’s response on the tongue-in-check question of whether the Thornton acquisition will work out. “I think it might,” laughed the Moose Factory native. THORNTON TIED FOR 1ST With his three assists against Vancouver, Joe Thornton made a dramatic jump into a tie with Jaromir Jagr for most points in the NHL, with 122. Thornton has posted at least one point in 45 out of his 56 contests with the Sharks, including registering 27 multi-point games. It was mentioned to Thornton that he might have a better chance at the league’s Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player if he and Jagr were in different media markets and the New York press was behind Thornton. “I like dealing with you guys better,” said Thornton. “I like it out here.”
# posted by Indigenous Red Man @ 8:08 AM 
