Sharks sink Lightning at home again

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 12, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. – Sharks in the water tend to swim about in a frenzied state at the sign of danger.

But they tend to play with a calm demeanor on the frozen surface inside Amalie Arena.

That proved the case once again as San Jose skated in to Tampa feeling confident and headed back out with a 3-1 victory on the strength of 25 saves from goaltender Martin Jones.

Patrick Marleau scored a controversial first goal to jumpstart the Sharks’ offense while Tommy Wingels and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored as San Jose won its fourth consecutive game against the Lightning in Tampa. The last Tampa Bay home victory against the Sharks came on Feb. 16, 2012, before the arrival of current head coach Jon Cooper.
{mprestriction ids=”1,2″}
“They’re obviously one of the better teams in the league and a very highly-skilled group over there,’’ Marleau said. “We knew we had our work cut out for us tonight, and the guys did a good job.’’

The game started off in somewhat controversial fashion on a call that was twice reviewed by the officiating crew.

After Marleau sent a shot toward goal from the slot, Bishop would make the save but a trio of bodies went sliding in to the crease, sending the puck in to the net and Marleau in to the net to knock it off the moorings.

The initial call on the ice was no goal due to goaltender interference on Marleau that caused the puck to cross the goal line. But the on-ice officials called for a review to determine if the puck went in due to the initial shot from Marleau, which proved not to be the case and the call on the ice of no goal stood.

But San Jose challenged the call, stating that Marleau did not interfere with Bishop and the puck was knocked in by Lightning forward Brayden Point. After a lengthy review, which included the officials seeking help from the war room in Toronto, the call was overturned and the goal was allowed to stand giving the Sharks the 1-0 lead at 7:18.

“Yeah I don’t know how (Bishop) is supposed to make a save there, but I don’t have the rulebook in front of me,’’ Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “I don’t know what the rule is. Obviously they review it and they call it. We can’t do anything about it once it happens. I mean it’s only 1-0, so that’s no excuse for our group.’’

That deficit quickly turned to two goals, however, when Wingels came down the slot unmarked to take a pass from Chris Tierny and beat Bishop at 10:04 and the Sharks never looked back.

“it comes down to the first period,’’ Cooper said. “They played fast, north-south hockey, and I thought we kind of slowed the game down. We were a little bit more deliberate. We had to navigate our way into their zone more often than not, and then we had to go to work in the offensive zone. We weren’t creating really anything in the north-south type game. On the other side of things, they did that. That’s how they got their penalty shot. That’s how things got going. They scored their goals and that’s all they needed.’’

Vlasic scored on the power play early in the second, which all but dashed any hopes of yet another Lightning comeback attempt.

“We have played fairly well here (but) tonight was tough. I thought it was a little bit of an uninspired effort for some of the game especially when we went down the third goal. It was okay, we were trying to carve our way back and when they got that third one it kind of deflated us a little bit.’’

Anton Stralman would end the shutout bid and give Tampa Bay a bit of life with his first goal of the season at 5:43 of the third period, but the defending Western Conference champions locked it down for the final 15 minutes of the game.

“We had some quality looks, but I still think we can do a better job of putting more pucks toward the net,’’ Stamkos said. “We have a lot of skilled players making a lot of nice plays, but they’re not resulting in quality scoring chances. Our line included, we can put some more pucks toward the net and open some space up, but, again, we didn’t do enough to win.”

Postgame notes: LW Jonathan Drouin missed his fifth consecutive game with an upper body injury, but did take part in the team’s optional morning skate. … Stralman’s goal was the first from a defenseman other than Victor Hedman. … G Ben Bishop stopped Joonas Donskoi on a first-period penalty shot to improve to 4-for-6 in face penalty shots since joining the Lightning. … Tampa Bay dropped to 0-6 this season when scoring fewer than three goals. … The Lightning fell to 0-2 this season to Western Conference opponents. … Tampa Bay starts a five-game road trip on Monday at Barclays Center, the third and final meeting this season with the New York Islanders.

{/mprestriction}