Gritty effort leads to win
Trailing 2-0 midway through the second period, the Sharks upped the ante with their physical play and it paid off big time Thursday night.
Joe Thornton’s knuckling shot from just inside the blue line snapped a 3-3 tie at 14:21 of the third period, and the Sharks went on to a 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at SAP Center.
“That was as physical as we’ve played in a while,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “We were really engaged. It’s not about running out of position and big hits. It’s about body position, playing on the inside, knocking people off of 50-50 pucks. … It’s nice to get rewarded for that type of effort.”
Several Raffi Torres hits, one by Jason Demers and more from Brent Burns and Thornton turned the tide in the middle period that saw the Sharks cut a two-goal deficit in half and outshoot Pittsburgh 18-8.
“We got physical and that totally turned the game,” Thornton said. “Everybody got into it after the big hits.”
Patrick Marleau scored a short-handed goal at 5:18 of the third period to tie the game, eluding Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and slipping a backhand past Pens goalie Jeff Zatkoff.
The Penguins went back on top as Olli Maatta scored his second of the night 21 seconds later on a power play.
San Jose, however, rallied again as Burns one-timed his 16th goal past Zatkoff at 6:52 after hard work in the corner by Joe Pavelski and Thornton.
Burns, who added an empty-netter, has three goals in two games after going 19 in a row without one.
“Sometimes they go in,” Burns said. “It was a great play by Pavs, he put it right where I wanted it. You stay as happy as you can when things aren’t going the way you want it.”
On the game’s deciding sequence, Thornton and Pavelski battled along the boards at center before the puck popped free. Thornton gained possession and wristed a high shot that may have deflected off of Maatta before fluttering past Zatkoff on a night in which the hosts outshot the high-powered Pens 47-22.
“They say it’s never bad to take a shot,” Thornton said. “I just got lucky, that’s all it is.”
One glaring stat from this one featured Penguins’ star Sidney Crosby finishing as a minus-5 with one shot during 21:02 of ice time. Crosby has yet to score a goal against San Jose.
“It was great hockey. It was hard, dirty, it was everything,” Sharks defenseman Jason Demers said. “The refs really managed it well. They made calls and let other stuff go. Both teams played great games; we just came out on top.”
Justin Braun started the comeback at 17:43 of the second with a drive that bounced past Zatkoff, who was bothered in front by Adam Burish and Tommy Wingels.
The Penguins took a 2-0 lead in the opening period on goals by Maatta and Chris Kunitz.