First, I'd like to say a sad farewell to our friend the Guidette succubus. Eliminated last night at the hands of an anthropomorphic Philly Cheesesteak (with boxing gloves. Eh, Broad Street Bullies, eh, eh, eh?) she will be missed.
It doesn't matter who you are, a game 5 tests your nerves. Last night's game was no different. Scoreless through the first it seemed that we were once again in for yet another night of tightly played, closely scored hockey that would go to overtime. Being a tad under the weather, I wasn't sure I could handle that. I was tempted to go to bed rather than watch 3 periods of ZOMG STREESSSSSSSS hockey. I didn't, of course, because it's playoff hockey, but oh, was I tempted. Fueled by dinner and some reassurances during the first intermission, I soldiered on. Boy, am I glad I did.
The second period was a Sharks goalapalooza! 3 goals scored, 1 by Teeth (Juicy, Bust, Prince Logan), [as an aside I plan to do a name guide for some of our newer readers/non twitter followers. And if you aren't following us on Twitter, you should be.] one by SUPER CLUTCH Joe PA!, and one by Mayo (Dwight Helminen). To see two rookies get pucks past Anderson was delightful, to say the least. The man has seemed nearly unbeatable all series, and yet, here, in the second, the Sharks managed to finally pierce his armor. The Sharks got the lead, and they held it.
This is not to say that there weren't a few slips by the Sharks. The defense was clearly so jacked up at times they were trying too hard to play the puck and get scoring chances, which lead to some mistakes and the result was usually the puck ending up near Nabby. Nabby was up to the task though, and made 17 of his nearly 30 saves in the 3rd period. Some were doozies too.
Logan scored again in the 3rd, and Patty finally woke up and scored as well, on a power play no less! Two power play goals this game (Joe Pa also scored on the PP), whoo!!! It's about time that got going!
HTMLine was broken up for a good chunk of the night. Heater was down on line 3 with Mitchell up on line 1. With Heatley still not 100%, they needed Mitchell's speed on the first line and he did not disappoint. That kid was everywhere. ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM FLASH MITCHELL!
Clowe made sure his presence was felt, and heard. After some nasty business he was jawing at the Colorado bench, trying to get one of their boys to commit to a fight. They ignored him. Joe Pa was in on the words as well. Great to see that guy so fired up!
Semi scary moment when McLeod cross checked Murray into Nabby and Nabby's head slammed into the post of his own net. Nabby was alright but the play resulted in some rough stuff behind him. McGinn (go kid!) ended up punching Duchene. Hannan, not amused by this, came in and smushed McGinn's face in with his hand. Separated, the two were both sent off for roughing. This was somewhat of a controversial call from Colorado's point of view, as many wanted to see McGinn get 5 for fighting.
Anderson ended up getting pulled with just under 9 minutes left. I believe he'd let in 4 goals at that point on 33 shots, and Budaj, who hasn't played since like 1982, was brought in to replace him. This prompted one of followers to tweet: HEY ANDERSON!
Maybe it was the orange shirts that were given out at the door, or maybe it was because his team finally dominated the Avs the way we knew they could, but the rule was lifted and Nabby was allowed to get the shut out tonight. He totally deserved it.
Sharks won the game 5-0 in front of 17, 562 happy Sharks fans (and a few unhappy Avs fans).
Next up is game 6, tomorrow, at 7pm. Hold on to your butts!
It's going to be one helluva ride!
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Sure feels like it's been more than 8 days since the playoffs started, doesn't it? Onto today's match ups.
7:30 Pacific/10:30 Eastern
CSN-CA, CBC, Versus, RDS
Also on the radio at 98.5 KFOX
Series tied 2-2
Orange(?!) get loud shirts at the Tank tonight
No Bronx cheers. Let's show the Avs who's boss.
4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern
RIS, TSN, CSN-PH
POSSIBLE ELMINATION GAME!
Flyers lead series 3-1
4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern
Versus, CBC, RDS
POSSIBLE ELMINATION GAME!
Pens lead series 3-1
5:30pm Pacific/8:30pm Eastern
Versus, TSN2, RIS
Preds lead series 2-1
Go Preds!
no commentsSo last night tested my patience. Going into overtime, AGAIN, I was nervous and just could not wait for the Sharks to score a goal on Anderson so I could stop watching the damn game. I was tired. They were tired. 3 overtime games in one series is taxing on both players and fans. I was getting impatient. It was 3.5 periods and no one had won yet and I was starting to get concerned that game 4 might end up like game 3 and not go the way I wanted it to. I'm a champion of positivity for these types of things but last night, last night was tough.
At some point in the third, while hanging out with ABD in his game chat-o-rama, I think I called Joe Pa to win it, despite him not being on the ice at the time. He was going to win it with his MIND. I could FEEL it. It just took a bit more drama to happen than I was hoping to have to watch.
What better way for Dan Boyle to answer all his new found critics than by scoring the first goal of the game and giving the Sharks the first lead all series? If you didn't jump out of your chair and do a fist pump, I question you possession of a pulse. If you thought Boyle was going to wilt under the pressure of his mistake, you haven't been paying attention to him at all. In fact I doubt you've been watching the Sharks at all this season. That's not Boyle's style. Dude is more solid than the ground you walk on. Don't ever doubt him or his desire to win.
At this point it's becoming difficult to be surprised by the officiating. It's not a problem confined to the Sharks v Avs series, either. That's really all I feel like saying about that.
It feels like we just can't get a break in this series, in some way. Bad bounces, can't hit the net as often as we should (I feel weird saying that after game 2, but that was clearly an aberration in terms of scoring)Anderson just being ON, the Avs doing an amazingly good job of getting in the way of shots and blocking everything this side of the Mississippi. It's ridiculous. That's not to say that the Sharks haven't been guilty of sitting back a few times, especially after that Avs gal to tie it up last night, but even when they pressure like nobody's business, it's hard to get something to Anderson, let along past him.
We may have deserved to win game 3, but we took game 4. It's 2-2. We needed that. Now we can bring it back home and take game 5, and then game 6 on Avs ice. These next few games are going to be nailbiters. You can be sure of that. Stock up on brown bags to breath into now. You're going to need them.
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7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern
Your channel watching options: CSNCA, Versus, CBC, RDS
I'm assuming, based on the fact that VS is also showing Pred/Hawks at 9pm, that this game will once again be JIP
Radio: KFOX
The Sharks can win it in six!
Bakes is wise.
Bakes needs to engage his abs more in that side plank.
Dudes on Hockey EX-OR-SIZE the demons!
And now onto all those other games tonight:
3:30pm Pacific/6:30pm Eastern
TSN, FS-A, FS-D
Coyotes lead series 2-1
4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern
Versus, CBC, RDS
Pens lead series 2-1
4:30pm Pacific/7:30pm Eastern
TSN2, RIS, MSG Plus
Flyers lead series 2-1
6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern
Versus, RIS, TSN
Series tied 1-1
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