Sharks Rally against the Wild

I might have figured out the secret for the Sharks' success finally. My new mascot that I'm bringing to the games - Little Sharkie Guy. I brought him to the game to put in this picture of a distinctive food item from the Tank. It was something for Puck Daddy. The Sharks rallied for a win, with Dany Heatley getting a hat trick in his home debut. So, I brought him again tonight. What happened? Patrick Marleau got two goals and an assist as the Sharks rallied from 2 down to win 4-2.

Again, the Sharks got off to a slow start, conceding the lead to Minnesota. The nice thing is that they were able to rally and post four unanswered goals.

The early part of the game was very choppy with a lot of penalties, including 2 at the same time to the Sharks for a full 5-on-3. I think this helped the Sharks get off to a slow start again. The odd thing is each team was able to get a floater goal in where it ended up floating over the goalie. Minnesota's had a player out front, who waved his stick at it, but did not touch it. (They did the whole video review thing, but I thought it was going to stand up.)

One of the coolest non-scoring plays was when Devin Setoguchi faked a guy out of his stick to walk towards the front of the net for a chance. The killer play was right at the beginning of the third period with Marleau sprung up ice, catching the Wild defenders flat, scoring at just 9 seconds into the period.

At the start of the game, I noticed some times when the Sharks would be a little off. The power play would have two guys in the same spot, or the penalty kill would have two forwards coming back in the same lane. Later, they seemed to be better at reading where everyone else would be, where they were supposed to be, and so on. This looked better than the last game, so I think they're on the right track to getting the chemistry worked out.

One real nice thing was Jed Ortmeyer scored for the Sharks, bringing the bottom six forwards onto the scoresheet. As they involve the bottom six in the offense more, the whole team will improve.

Nabakov also looked better this game, including one stellar stop on a two pad slide. Plus, Ryane Clowe and Marc-Edouard Vlasic combined to make a sliding save when Nabby was caught out of position.

All-in-all, a nice game to be at.