*Photo from the Mercury News*
The Buffalo Sabres have had a strong start to the season. The Florida Panthers have had a strong start to the season. Now, the San Jose Sharks are also having a strong start to the season. Who saw that coming? Logan Couture scored two goals, Erik Karlsson scored, and the Sharks defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 on Friday night.
The Sharks were playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, and it showed in the first period, starting out evidently slow. However, in the second period, they found their groove, and in the 3rd period, they stuck with it, which was all they needed to do in order to improve to 4-0-0 this season, winning 4 straight games.
Sharks captain Logan Couture said of the hot start that "It's huge to start like this. That was the main focus in training camp, to get off to a good start this year. Last two years, we haven't and it's snowballed into tough seasons. We had a really good camp, a really good preseason and we've carried it into the regular season."
After a scoreless first period, Couture got the Sharks on the board in the second, scoring 2:31 into the period to make it 1-0 Sharks. At 3:27, Jason Spezza provided an answer for the Maple Leafs, tying the game 1-1. 17 seconds later, Timo Meier put the Sharks right back ahead, with his second goal of the season making it a 2-1 game. Ondrej Kase then scored for the Maple Leafs to tie it, followed by Karlsson's second goal of the season to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead after two periods.
In the 3rd period, the Sharks doubled their lead, when Jonathan Dahlen scored just 25 seconds into the period, making it a 4-2 game. John Tavares cut the Leafs deficit to 4-3, scoring 13:39 into the period. With 40 seconds remaining in the game and the net empty for Toronto, Couture buried the empty net goal, his second of the afternoon to make it 5-3 Sharks.
San Jose head coach Bob Boughner said after the game that "Just the way we won it, being a back-to-back situation coming into a building where we knew they were rested and hungry and looking to break out offensively, it was just a huge two points and keeps us rolling. More than anything, it was complete team effort for us."
Adin Hill picked up the win for the Sharks, keeping his perfect record intact to start the season, improving to 3-0-0 so far. Hill certainly earned the win on Friday, saving 30 shots out of the 33 he was faced with, good for a .909 save percentage to bring his season total to .922 after 3 games, with one shutout.
Michael Hutchinson made his season debut in a start for the Maple Leafs, and it did not go as planned. Hutchinson saved just 26 out of the 30 shots he faced from the Sharks, good for a meager .867 save percentage in his first work of the season.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of the loss that "We thought we should have had a better start in terms of being able to dictate the pace and score first. I thought we had the puck a ton, probably twice as much as the opposition tonight, but they made it challenging to get to the front of the net, they were protecting the inside a lot. We didn't adjust quickly enough, we didn't make it hard enough on the goaltending, our power play couldn't be the difference we needed, especially early in the game, and as a result we were chasing all the way though."
The Maple Leafs are right back in action on Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, with the 2-0-1 Jack Campbell starting in goal. The Sharks look to stay undefeated against the Boston Bruins on Sunday, with Hill lined up to start again.
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