From: claudius@leland.Stanford.EDU (Nelson Lu)
Subject: Sharks lose to Blackhawks 2-1
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 07:29:47 GMT

Saturday, November 21, 7:30 P. M. at the Cow Palace:

Arturs Irbe was again spectacular in his third consecutive start, as he
stopped 44 of 46 Chicago shots, but the Sharks again could not get much offense
against Ed Belfour, who stopped 25 of 26 San Jose shots, as they dropped their
second straight.

The Sharks jumped on the scoreboard quickly in a first period that was
initially marked by poor, unorganized play by both teams.  With the Blackhawks
on the power-play, miscommunication between Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, and
Belfour resulted in all three scrambling for the puck behind the net, and
Roenick gave the puck away to Kelly Kisio, who quickly centered it in front
to Perry Berezan, who had no problem shooting the puck into the open net at
3:23.  However, a Shark giveaway later set up the Blackhawks' first goal at
13:57.  Sandis Ozolinsh was trying to break out from behind the Sharks net,
but his pass landed right on Stephane Matteau's stick, and Matteau made a shot
that Irbe stopped, but Brian Noonan and Brent Sutter then poked at the puck in
the crease, and Noonan finally got it by Irbe.  The Blackhawks pressured Irbe
hard for the latter part of the period, as they out-shot the Sharks 20-8, but
got only the one goal, as Irbe was again spectacular.

The second period was marked by excellent goaltending by both Irbe and Belfour,
as the teams traded good scoring chances (again, sloppy defensive play on both
sides), with the Blackhawks out-shooting the Sharks 13-9.  Irbe's best stop was
on Sutter, who was all alone just a foot in front of him, while Belfour stopped
Ozolinsh on a break-away and turned away Jayson More's follow up shot as well.

The third period was pretty similar, with the same shot count, 13-9, but the
Blackhawks were finally able to get the puck past Irbe at 15:38.  Dirk Graham
won a faceoff at the Blackhawk blue line, and Christian Ruutuu fed it up
quickly to Greg Gilbert, who waited for Ruutuu and dropped the pass off to
him, and Ruutuu blasted it through a screen from the left circle past Irbe.
The Sharks pulled Irbe for the final 30 seconds, but couldn't get a solid
chance on Belfour.

Tonight's three stars:

1.	Christian Ruutuu
2.	Greg Gilbert
3.	Arturs Irbe

(Definitely disagree.  Irbe should be first star while Belfour should be the
second, IMO.  Then, perhaps Gilbert should be third star.)

Tonight's lines:

Johan Garpenlov		Kelly Kisio		Perry Berezan
Larry DePalma		Brian Lawton		Petri Skriko
Dave Snuggerud		Mike Sullivan		Ed Courtenay
John Carter		Dean Evason		Yvon Corriveau

Tonight's defensive pairings:

		Doug Wilson		Doug Zmolek
		Jayson More		Sandis Ozolinsh
		Tom Pederson		Rob Zettler

Scratches:	Jeff Hackett (groin), Neil Wilkinson (back),
	Pat Falloon (shoulder), Lyndon Byers (foot), Dale Craigwell (back),
	David Bruce (groin), Jeff Odgers (hand), Pat MacLeod.  Falloon suffered
	the shoulder sprain in Tuesday's game against the Los Angeles Kings,
	but played through it Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, getting
	a break tonight only with Petri Skriko and Yvon Corriveau ready.  Byers
	took a shot in the foot against the Leafs, and is day-to-day as are
	Falloon, Hackett, Wilkinson, Craigwell, and Bruce.  Odgers is at least
	another week away.  Hackett initially was supposed to back up Irbe
	tonight, but at the last moment George Kingston elected to go with
	Brian Hayward.

Notes:

1.	Skriko returned tonight after missing 3 games with a recurrence of a
	groin injury.  Corriveau returned after missing 11 games with a
	shoulder injury.

2.	The Sharks really missed Falloon tonight, as they were not making some
	of the nice passes that Falloon would have made.  Falloon's absence
	also made the Blackhawks challenging the Sharks more on power-plays,
	closing off some space for scoring.

3.	I thought that Buffalo got the better deal in that Ruutuu-Dominik Hasek
	deal.  Boy, am I wrong.

4.	I wonder what Hayward thought tonight as he sat on the bench.  Those
	thoughts are probably not pleasant ones.

5.	With him stopping 44 of 46 shots in this game, Irbe has now stopped
	150 of 156 shots in his past 4 games (96.2%).  Amazing.  And yes, I
	still would take him over Tom Barrasso.  I am beginning to become a
	Latvi-philiac. :-)

===============================================================================
"M. C. Hamrlik: Can't Touch This Lightning."
GO LOS ANGELES KINGS!  Luc Robitaille for Hart!
GO SAN JOSE SHARKS!  Sandis Ozolinsh for Calder!  Jeff Hackett for Vezina!
===============================================================================
Nelson Lu (claudius@leland.stanford.edu)
rec.sport.hockey contact for the San Jose Sharks