From: nlu@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Nelson Lu)
Subject: Sharks lose to Canucks 7-5
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 07:52:59 GMT

Tuesday, December 29, 7:30 P. M., at the Pacific Coliseum:

As it happened many times this season, it happened again; the Sharks played
poorly early in the game and digged a big hole, and despite a valiant attempt
later, they could not come all the way back, as the Canucks had a 6-0 lead over
the Sharks midway through the 2nd period, and held onto a 7-5 win.
Jeff Hackett played poorly following setting a club record with 57 save against
the Los Angeles Kings, and gave up 5 first period goals on 16 Vancouver shots.
Brian Hayward played very well in relief, stopping 19 of 21 shots, but took the
loss, as he gave up the game winning goal.  Kay Whitmore picked up his third
win against the Sharks this season, as he stopped 26 of 31 San Jose shots in
a rather poor effort.

Nothing went right for the Sharks in the first period, as the Canucks played
excellent defense and turned defense into offense, capitalizing on a number of
Sharks mistakes, out-shooting the Sharks 16-7 and scoring 5 goals.  They struck
just 1:38 into the game, as following a Hackett save, an attempted clearing
pass was intercepted by Anatoli Semenov, who quickly led it to Greg Adams, who
poked the puck past Hackett.  Cliff Ronning made the lead 2-0 at 4:44, as he
deflected a shot from Sergio Momesso from the left circle, as Momesso one-timed
a Trevor Linden pass.  Semenov added to the lead at 12:48 on a pretty play (for
the Canucks, that is).  Gino Odjick, just out of the penalty box, took the puck
on the right side, skated into the Sharks zone, and centered it in front for
Pavel Bure, who couldn't quite tee it up, but Semenov quickly slapped it past
Hackett.  Bure did get a goal at 18:14, as he converted a 2-on-1 with Jyrki
Lumme.  Linden closed the scoring in the first period at 19:44, as he stole
the puck in the right corner, skated to the slot unmolested, and backhanded
the shot past Hackett.  (Sorry for the rather non-chalant descriptions; I must
admit that I didn't have a very good feel for the goals tonight.)

The Canucks out-shot the Sharks 15-7 in the second period, and extended their
lead to 6-0 at 9:49 with one second left on a major power-play due to a major
penalty dealt to Doug Zmolek for high-sticking Odjick.  Odjick had centered the
puck in front to Bure, whose shot was stopped by Hayward, but Adrian Plavsic
jumped up into the play and slapped the puck by Hayward.  The Sharks finally
got on the scoring board at 10:17, as Dean Evason brought the puck into the
Canucks zone to the right boards, and centered the puck in front for Jeff
Odgers to muscle by Whitmore.  The Sharks cut the lead to 6-2 at 17:46 on a
strange play.  Kelly Kisio had just shot the puck into the Canucks zone, and
it took a strange bounce near the net, catching Whitmore leaning the wrong way,
and Johan Garpenlov quickly tried to score into the open side of the net, and
his shot bounced off the sticks of Rob Gaudreau and Kisio into the net.

The Sharks came out hungry in the third period, out-shooting the Canucks 17-6,
but could not score until Gaudreau did at 10:52, as Kisio, right after Hayward
made an excellent stop on a Canuck 2-on-1, quickly fed the puck to Garpenlov,
who went on a 2-on-1 with Gaudreau, and Garpenlov slipped a lead pass to
Gaudreau, who backhanded the puck past Whitmore.  The lead came down to 6-4
at 15:31, as John Carter, after he checked the puck off a Canuck in the left
corners, centered the puck in front for Ray Whitney to deflect past Whitmore.
The cause became lost, though, when Semenov struck for a power-play goal at
16:02, as right off a faceoff won by himself, he ripped a shot past a surprised
Hayward.  The Sharks did quickly cut it back to 7-5, as off a faceoff won by
Falloon, Rob Zettler led it to Mark Pederson, who ripped the shot past Whitmore
at 16:33, but could get no closer.  In particular, Whitmore stopped Gaudreau
on a break-away with less than a minute left.

Tonight's three stars:

1.	Pavel Bure
2.	Rob Gaudreau
3.	Dana Murzyn

Tonight's lines:

Johan Garpenlov		Kelly Kisio		Rob Gaudreau
Mike Sullivan		Pat Falloon		Mark Pederson
Michel Picard		Dean Evason		Jeff Odgers
John Carter		Ray Whitney		Lyndon Byers

Tonight's defensive pairings:

		Doug Wilson		Doug Zmolek
		Sandis Ozolinsh		Neil Wilkinson
		Tom Pederson		Rob Zettler

Scratches:	Arturs Irbe (knee), Jayson More (groin), Yvon Corriveau (back),
	David Bruce (groin), Larry DePalma (back), Pat MacLeod, Perry Berezan.
	The latest words on Irbe is that he'll be out for another 3 weeks.

Notes:

1.	I don't know what's got Hackett.  Last year, he was Mr. Consistent.
	This year, he's Mr. Inconsistent.

2.	Gaudreau's goal and assist extended his scoring streak to 12 games,
	a new club record, and the longest current scoring streak in the NHL,
	as Petr Nedved, failing to get a point tonight, had his 17-game streak
	snapped.  Gaudreau now has 19 points in 13 games played.

3.	Sandis Ozolinsh seemed to have played a particularly poor game.  It
	seemed like that Canucks forwards were skating past him all the time.
	(In addition, he put a rather vicious check on Bure that went
	uncalled...  Is this one of those Russian/Latvian things? :-))

===============================================================================
"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