One More Game

Okay. At least we won't get swept.

The Sharks earned themselves one more game tonight with an energetic, desperate, and generally well-played 2-1 win in Dallas. The victory was really only marred by an egregiously bad turnover by Devin Setoguchi, who made the prettiest pass by a Shark of the night--right onto the tape of Dallas Star Jere Lehtinen, who was alone in the slot. Without the resulting goal, Evgeni Nabokov would've had himself a shutout. Patrick Marleau had a shorthanded goal to open the San Jose scoring (again), and Joe Thornton looked like himself (finally), controlling the puck well and earning the primary assist on the game-winner by Milan Michalek, who appears to have his game back.

Is it all too late? Probably. Although I dispute Mark Purdy's assertion that there is only a 1.3% chance of San Jose coming back and winning this series (the statistics are skewed because most of the teams in the history of the NHL that have fallen behind 3-0 have been overwhelmed by vastly superior talent, but that's not the case here--this isn't the 1995 Western Conference Semifinals), the fact remains that the Sharks are in an extraordinarily deep hole.

Still, what's a battle against the forces of evil without overwhelming odds? All the Sharks can do is worry about winning the next game. Trying to win three games at once tends to lead to boneheaded plays like passing the puck to opponents occupying your own slot.

Back to San Jose on Friday, where, unfortunately, the Dallas Stars are nigh unbeatable.