3/4 sharks 4, DALLAS 0

Well, another game another... wait a minute, a win? For the Sharks? Awesome. And if they can play like that more often, we could be in for a fun ride this spring.

The Sharks, having dropped 4 straight, 7 of their last 9, and 11 of their last 17 coming into the night (afternoon), looked to greatly amend those numbers, starting with a solid victory. This win was a bit different however, as, they didn't dominate solely on the offensive side of the puck, but playing Stars style hockey, with the strongest of play coming on defense. The Stars outshot the Sharks 26-18, but the Sharks shone defensively by blocking 23 shots. The 19 year old beast known only as "Pickles" (those unworthy must call him Marc-Edouard Vlasic) lead the effort by blocking 6 shots all by his little self.

By playing strong defensively, the Sharks got themselves plenty of scoring chances. They had just one shot on goal in the 1st, and they made it count. Curtis Brown [8] had the lone shot, wristing it up and over the shoulder of Marty Turco (Christian Ehrhoff, Mike Grier). Ryane Clowe [14] (Patrick Rissmiller, Marcel Goc) picked up a rebound and stuffed it into an open net past Turco, and Joe Pavelski added a pair of goals [13,14] (Jonathan Cheechoo, Matt Carle) (Clowe, Cheechoo). Evgeni Nabokov stopped all 26 shots he faced for his 15th win of the year, and 5th shutout this season.

The Sharks have now completed their series with the Stars, with Dallas having won the season series 5-3. Having been to 4 regular season games at the Hangar (not to mention the ASG and festivities), I am both happy and sad to not be seeing any more games in this massive arena. I will miss the decent food, the great view, and the crazy techno music played, however, that freakin horn, and the P.A. guy , Bill Ollerman, well, let's just say, no tears for them. The Sharks and Stars have a great rivalry that make games between them fun, whether I get to do the booing because the game is in SJ, or whether I get booed for being the Stars house, it's a fun atmosphere.

The Sharks wrap up this roadtrip, their second to last of the year, on Tuesday in St. Paul for the final game of the year with the Wild. The Sharks lead the series 2-1, having taken the one game played at Xcel (2-1 on 11/29). It was really nice to see the Sharks play well again, here's to them keeping it up on Tuesday.

Go Sharks (sorry Bill but, hooray for no more Ollerman)
-Jess






It's far away, but it's the American Airlines Center, minus the All-Star stuff.



See, American Airlines.



See, American Airlines Center. Says so, right on the building. Told ya so.