Reimer stymies Arizona as S. J. gets crucial win
James Reimer pitched his second shutout as a member of the Sharks as San Jose beat the Arizona Coyotes 3- 0 at SAP Center on Sunday night.
Reimer turned away 25 shots for his 13th career shutout as the Sharks won for the fourth time in five games to remain one point behind secondplace Anaheim in the Pacific Division. The Ducks beat Winnipeg earlier in the day.
“It’s always a good time when things are going your way,” Reimer said. “But it’s hard to take credit for that tonight. I thought our team played one of its better games in a long time, especially with it being a back- to- back.”
Acquired from Toronto at the NHL trade deadline, Reimer blanked Edmonton in his second start with San Jose on March 8.
“He’s making all the saves,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “He made a couple of saves on the breakdowns. That’s what you need. It’s great to see him step in that way.”
The Sharks escaped some first- period penalty trouble, killing a short 5- on- 3 along the way, and managed another strong defensive effort while playing without top defensive blue liner Marc- Edouard Vlasic for the second straight game.
“We were up, we were skating and outworking them,” Reimer added. “For me, it was a matter of sitting back there and watching them do their thing.”
Forwards Joel Ward, Tomas Hertl and Pavelski provided the goal scoring as San Jose improved to 16- 15- 3 on home ice by winning its second game in two days to open a six- game homestand.
“We’re confident with the lineup we have every night,” said Joe Thornton, who extended his streak of recording a point during each of the team’s past 28 wins. “It’s been a lot of fun to be a part of this right now.”
Pavelski scored his 34th goal into an empty net at 18: 55 of the third. And defenseman Brent Burns set a franchise mark with his 65th point on the primary assist, feeding his teammate when he could have otherwise scored a club- record 27th goal for a blue liner.
San Jose went up 2- 0 in the second period when it managed to solve Arizona’s stingy penalty kill, which was 18for- 18 spanning six games until it was asked to play shorthanded at 11: 05.
It was San Jose’s second power- play unit that converted. Hertl scored his 18th goal 57 seconds into the advantage when his centering attempt caromed off the stick of Arizona defenseman Connor Murphy and between the pads of goalie Mike Smith at 12: 02.
“You need that second unit, that second wave and they’ve come up huge lately,” Pavelski said.
The Sharks had to be strong on the penalty kill to keep their early lead. San Jose had to kill a combined 5: 22 of Coyotes’ power play time spread over three advantages before the Sharks received their first power play.
“Penalty kill was huge early; they really set the defensive tone for us,” Pavelski said. “To get those kills 5- on- 3 were important.”
Using the successful kill as momentum, the Sharks went ahead at 18: 28 of the first period.
Ward scored his third goal in two games when he was credited with his 20th on a shot by defenseman Brenden Dillon that ricocheted past Smith. Ward was dealing with defenseman Klas Dahlbeck in the slot as Dillon let his wrist shot go from the left point.