12/26 anaheim 4, SHARKS 3

Freakin Ducks. Crazy bounces, soft wrap-around goals, and an amazing defense that allowed 5 shots in the final 23 minutes of play lead to a round 3 victory for the SoCal Quackers last night. In a game that saw both Jean-Sebastian Giguere and Francois Beauchemin go down with injuries, the Ducks were still able to prevail. With Ilya Bryzgalov already out, rookie Michael Wall saw 23 minutes of action, and only had to face 5 shots, vutlturing his second win of the season.

Funny how homerism works. Sharks win, and everything is roses. Sharks lose, even if it's in the same exact fashion as they previously won, and everything sucks. But, that is the way of the fan. A win makes your day, or night as it were, and a loss just makes you yearn for that next game even more.

Looking at this game and trying to draw all the positives possible, there are a couple good things. First, for not putting much pressure on the net in the third, the Sharks did pretty well. They had three goals on an elite goaltender in J.S. Giguere, they had a goal on the powerplay and two more on delayed penalties with the extra attacker. The defense, without Kyle McLaren again, played pretty well making only a few mistakes. And, most important, even though they gave up the first goal, they continued to play hard and come back (until the third period that is), even scoring a pair in the first.

The Sharks final home game of 2006 will take place tomorrow night, in those stupid black practice jerseys. The Sharks look to avoid a 5th consecutive loss on Black Thursday when they take on the Phoenix Coyotes. Also on the line is a winning record at home for the month of December. As it stands, the Sharks are 4-4 at home this month, and have had + .500 records each of the first two months of the season.

Go Sharks (go Sharks [twice for double emphasis])
-Jess