Vancouver Canucks’ goalie Cory Schneider and San Jose Sharks’ TJ Galiardi watch the puck go in the net off the stick of Brent Burns during Game 4 of their NHL Western Conference quarter-final hockey play-off game in San Jose, California, yesterday.
SAN JOSE, California: Patrick Marleau scored a power-play goal with 6:42 remaining in overtime as the San Jose Sharks swept the Vancouver Canucks out of the NHL play-offs with a 4-3 victory yesterday.
Canucks Swedish forward Daniel Sedin was whistled for a questionable boarding penalty at 13:03 of overtime that led to Canadian Marleau’s overtime game winner which lifted the Sharks to a 4-0 first round series win.
The Sharks now advance to the NHL play-off quarter-finals against an unnamed Western Conference opponent.
After Sedin was sent to the penalty box for hitting Tommy Wingels, San Jose’s powerplay went to work. Joe Thornton fired a shot that Canucks goaltender Cory Schneider stopped. But Schneider wasn’t able to control the rebound and the puck bounced over to Marleau who punched it home.
Forward Joe Pavelski, of the US, scored a pair of goals in regulation for San Jose, including the game-tying marker with 4:27 left in the third period to force overtime.
Brent Burns also scored, while passing specialist Thornton added a three assists for the Sharks. Finland’s Antti Niemi made 32 saves in the win.
Alexandre Burrows and Mason Raymond finished with a goal and an assist apiece, while Swedish defenceman Alexander Edler scored once for Vancouver, which suffered its second straight first-round post-season exit.
American Schneider stopped 43-of-47 shots in the loss.
John Tavares’ second goal in as many contests snapped a tie midway through the third period as eighth-seeded New York evened its Eastern Conference first-round series with visiting Pittsburgh at two games apiece.
Captain Mark Streit collected two goals and an assist, Casey Cizikas tallied and set up two scores and Kyle Okposo scored for the third straight game.
Evgeni Malkin collected a goal and an assist for his fourth straight two-point performance of the series for Pittsburgh.
James Neal scored in his return from a two-game absence and Brandon Sutter and Pascal Dupuis also tallied for the top-seeded Penguins, who host Game Five tomorrow.
Pittsburgh scored its first third-period goal in the series 41 seconds into the session to claim a 4-3 edge but Former Penguins defenceman Brian Strait tied it up before Tavares’ decider.
AFP
