Sharks Surrender Lead

All the San Jose Sharks needed to do was keep a one goal lead in third period and they would go home happy. No such happiness would be found following the game. The Sharks dominated play throughout the first and second out skating and hitting the Canucks. The Sharks jumped out to a 1 goal lead with just over a minute to play in the first on a Roberto Luongo misplay. Luongo attempted to start the breakout on his own and sent the puck right to Joe Thornton who buried it into the open net. Not the start the Canucks were looking for. Vancouver wouldn't stay down for long, just 2 minutes into the 2nd Maxim Lapierre connected on a tic-tac-toe play assisted by Hansen and Torres. Mid way through the second, Chris Higgins got the Canucks crowd going with a huge open ice hit. This was exactly what the doctor ordered. Although the Sharks would score within a minute of the hit on a Patrick Marleau goal, the energy was on the Canucks' side. Vancouver heavily outplayed San Jose in the latter part of the second and third outshooting them 27-19 in that span. 7:02 into the 3rd the Vancouver faithful's prayers were answered by a Kevin Bieksa one-timer goal. Under a minute and half later, the capacity crowd would have more to cheer for when who else, but captain Henrik Sedin buried an in close chance to take the lead. From then on, Vancouver completely outplayed San Jose and would not look back. Daniel Sedin believed this game was their best of the playoffs. Daniel told Vancouvercanucks.com, “We had the puck more in the offensive zone and we created a lot from those kind of shifts.” Vancouver had a huge advantage in the shot total with a 38-29 swing. Look for the offensive dominance to resume in Game Two.