Shawnna and I attended this match-up between two teams who haven't faced each other in 3 years. Being a fan of Devil's goalie Martin Brodeur, I still wanted the Sharks to win, but I would have been happy with a 1-0 victory instead of running up the score on Brodeur. The Devils are a very defensive-minded team and that set the tone for the game.
The first two periods were very similar in style and outcome. There were a lot of sloppy passes, a good amount of play in the neutral zone, a few good scoring chances for each team, brilliant saves from the goaltenders, very few penalties and no scoring. Through the first 2 periods, each team were called for 2 penalties and the Sharks had the shot advantage 16-14, but the score was 0-0.
The third period was more of the same with one notable exception. At 8:49, Joe Thornton jumped on the ice when it wasn't his shift, intercepted a New Jersey pass and fired a bullet from the left faceoff circle past Brodeur to put the Sharks up 1-0. After that, the Devils really tried to keep the pressure on the Sharks and got a boost when the Sharks were called for a penalty with 1:30 remaining. The Devils pulled Brodeur for an extra attacker, so they essentially had a 2 man advantage. However, Nabokov stood on his head to keep the Devils off the scoreboard and Mike Grier scored a shorthanded, empty net goal from the Sharks zone with 8 seconds remaining to put the game on ice 2-0.
This game was Nabokov's 3rd shutout this season and 30th of his career. Brodeur also had a great game and only gave up 1 goal on 26 shots, but the Devils couldn't solve Nabokov. It was a great defensive game and proved the Sharks can match up well against any of the top teams in the league.
Score: W 2-0
1st Period
None
2nd Period
None
3rd Period
SJ - Joe Thornton (unassisted)
SJ - Mike Grier(SH, EN) (Marc-Edouard Vlasic)
SJ SOG: 27
Devils SOG: 24
Winning Goalie: Evgeni Nabokov
Losing Goalie: Martin Brodeur
Tickets: Section 220 Row 4
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