Round One: Anaheim @ San Jose

claude lemeiux is in tonight

davetherave wrote:Do you want to follow this one in the chat room? Might be easier...

sure dave

Wow... Hillier was pretty darn amazing!

Holy Shark batman--Ducks pecked this one out!

Anybody still think the Ducks have goaltending issues?

Hiller was massive in both games...what a contest tonight...

:##:

Wow. A lot of us picked the Ducks to upset, but...there's always something about seeing it actually happen that's shocking.

Whew.

Sharks are gonna need to reach deep down and win the next 2.

hiller had close to 50 saves tonight

What happened to Giguerre? I guess I don't follow the West much, 'cause I thought he was still their #1.

Wow. Sharks down 2 games and heading on the road... the curse lives...

wprager wrote:What happened to Giguerre? I guess I don't follow the West much, 'cause I thought he was still their #1.

Giguere has had some serious family issues all year long and has taken leaves of absence at various times...Hiller has stepped in and been excellent.

One of the benefits of having a solid tandem.

Hiller was superb again last night.

Anaheim 3, San Jose 2

	1	2	3	T
ANA	1	0	2	3
SAN	0	1	1	2

Final

10:00 PM ET, April 19, 2009
HP Pavilion, San Jose, California

Ducks leave San Jose with surprising 2-0 series lead over top-seeded Sharks

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Anaheim Ducks collectively kept their celebrations to a murmur, refusing to show any postgame excitement Sunday night except for the first career playoff goals by three of their youngest forwards.

It was a showcase of the level, veteran cool you'd expect from a team two years removed from a Stanley Cup -- even after that club just tore through the NHL's toughest road arena and took two games from the league's best regular-season team.

Andrew Ebbett broke a tie with a goal from an awkward angle with 10:16 left, and the Ducks stunned the San Jose Sharks with another defensive gem in a 3-2 victory in Game 2, jumping to a 2-0 lead in the first-round playoff series.

Jonas Hiller made 42 saves in his second outstanding effort, while Bobby Ryan and Drew Miller also scored their first playoff goals. Just as their 2-0 Game 1 victory, the eighth-seeded Ducks were defensively tough and offensively fortunate against San Jose, which lost just five home games in regulation during the entire regular season.

"We knew we could play well," Hiller said. "But to come into the rink of the best team in the league and win the first two games, we don't expect that, although we have to think it's possible. ... I'm sure this is not what people expected from us. We have the two wins, but the Sharks are still the best team this year."

Ryane Clowe's goal early in the second period ended more than 174 minutes of scoreless playoff hockey for the Sharks dating to last season, but San Jose couldn't rally despite another monstrous edge in shots.

An eighth seed has beaten a top seed seven times in the NHL playoffs since 1994, and playoff-tested Anaheim is ripe to add its name to the list. San Jose must win four of the next five games, including two in Anaheim, to avoid what would be a disastrous end to a 117-point season capped by the franchise's first Presidents' Trophy.

"I'm not too sure that the guys in there, after the two games, I think if you went through and asked each of the guys, they'd think they're the better team," said Todd McLellan, the Sharks' rookie coach. "They're not getting the puck luck, and you have to give Anaheim credit. They found a way to win."

Game 3 is Tuesday night in Anaheim.

Jonathan Cheechoo also scored, and Evgeni Nabokov made 23 saves for the Sharks, who outshot Anaheim 44-26 after a 35-17 edge in the Ducks' 2-0 Game 1 victory -- but San Jose dropped to 0-for-12 on the power play in the series after going scoreless in six chances in Game 2.

Although an NHL playoff neophyte, Hiller again showed off the resilience he learned as a star in the top Swiss league and the world championships. Yet the rest of the Ducks know about playoff toughness from experiences the Sharks just can't duplicate in the regular season.


"I don't think that we recognize the pressure, as much as you guys seem to want to put that exclamation mark on it," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "[Hiller] played in some real intense games for us down the stretch. He's a veteran guy from the Swiss league and world championships. He knows what pressure is about. What he's got to do is just do his job. He doesn't have to win the hockey game for us. He's just got to give us a chance."

The Sharks' frustration only was heightened in the third period when the Ducks scored on Ebbett's fortunate deflection and Miller's rebound shot through traffic in a 3 1/2-minute span, while San Jose managed only Cheechoo's goal with 6:06 left.

McLellan broke up his top-line pairing of Joe Thornton and captain Patrick Marleau for Game 2, moving around his top two scorers but rarely icing them together. It didn't generate much new offense, but Clowe came through after a turnover by Ebbett, slipping the puck past three defenders to snap the Sharks' playoff scoreless streak at 174 minutes, 2 seconds, dating to their four-overtime elimination loss to Dallas last spring.

"I don't feel a lot of panic around here, that's for sure," Clowe said. "We're going to go on the road, and maybe we'll be a little more relaxed. We'll probably get some of those bounces. That's the way it goes sometimes in a long series. I thought we worked hard enough to get some bounces, but obviously we were hitting posts like there's no tomorrow. That's the playoffs."

In the third period, Ebbett deflected the puck off the back of Nabokov's pad from near the goal line on a play set up by the speed of Teemu Selanne, who slipped behind the San Jose defense and fired the puck on net to set the sequence in motion.

Miller then put the Ducks up 3-1 on a rebound goal with 6:43 to play, but Cheechoo reduced the deficit 37 seconds later by barging past two defenders for a score. The Sharks kept pushing, and Christian Ehrhoff hit the post with 2:10 to play -- but Anaheim controlled the puck for much of the final minute, preventing the Sharks from threatening.

"It's not like we've been spanked and we've got our tail between our legs," McLellan said. "We play the same way, do the same things, create the same number of chances, eventually it'll go in for us, and we'll continue on."

Fast Facts


• Andrew Ebbett broke a tie with his first career playoff goal with 10:16 left to help the Ducks go up 2-0 on the top-seeded Sharks.
• Jonas Hiller had 42 saves, and Drew Miller added a goal (first playoff goal) and an assist in the win.
• The Sharks scored 5:38 into the second period to snap a 97:59 scoreless streak for San Jose that dated back to the regular season.
• The Sharks have lost three straight and six of their last eight playoff games.
• Joe Thornton was held without a goal for the eighth straight postseason game.
-- ESPN Stats & Information

Game notes
Claude Lemieux participated in his first NHL playoff game in six years when the Sharks scratched enforcer Jody Shelley and inserted Lemieux on their fourth line. The 43-year-old four-time Stanley Cup winner had one assist in 18 regular-season games for the Sharks after his comeback from a 5 1/2-year retirement. ... San Jose had a 17-3 shot advantage in the second period. ... Eighth-seeded Edmonton beat Detroit in 2006, then went on to knock off fifth-seeded San Jose on the way to the Stanley Cup finals.

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:What happened to Giguerre? I guess I don't follow the West much, 'cause I thought he was still their #1.

Giguere has had some serious family issues all year long and has taken leaves of absence at various times...Hiller has stepped in and been excellent.

One of the benefits of having a solid tandem.

Hiller was superb again last night.

But Giguerre was there at the game as the backup.

Odd.

shabbs wrote:

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:What happened to Giguerre? I guess I don't follow the West much, 'cause I thought he was still their #1.

Giguere has had some serious family issues all year long and has taken leaves of absence at various times...Hiller has stepped in and been excellent.

One of the benefits of having a solid tandem.

Hiller was superb again last night.

But Giguerre was there at the game as the backup.

Odd.

Giguere's backing up now, as the situation seems to have stabilized...but he had a very rough time emotionally this past year, involving both the death of his father and his son's infirmity. There have been several articles on the subject:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/columns/article_1742621.php

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2008/11/27/nhl-ducks-giguere.html?ref=rss

Ahhh... for some reason I thought this was a new situation and Giggy had started the first game...

Hillier is playing like a man possessed.

Not to mention, for Anaheim to take both home games away from the Sharks is NO small feat at all and should they REALLY trounce the Sharks in Game #3 at the Honda centre, LOOK OUT!!

Plus, how long until we see the age-old habits or antics of Pronger come out?! Seeing how he and Cheechoo were going at it, I figured Cheechoo better keep his head up at ALL times...

is it panic time in the Shark Tank yet? Heading to the pond against the killer ducks?

Cronie wrote:Hillier is playing like a man possessed.

Not to mention, for Anaheim to take both home games away from the Sharks is NO small feat at all and should they REALLY trounce the Sharks in Game #3 at the Honda centre, LOOK OUT!!

Plus, how long until we see the age-old habits or antics of Pronger come out?! Seeing how he and Cheechoo were going at it, I figured Cheechoo better keep his head up at ALL times...

Cheechoo scored a wicked goal last night...they need more of those.

Pronger is Pronger...some fans may not like him but there isn't a coach who wouldn't want him on his blueline. Prongerzilla's been very effective for the Quack Pack.

Oh I'm not necessarily bashing Pronger DTR (although when he elbowed McAmmond I wasn't too pleased) because you're right, he is very effective; I was merely pointing out that something could develop between those two fellas shortly if the pressure cooker continues to heat up!