Goalkeeper Martin Jones put on a great performance, and the San Jose Sharks edged the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 at home on Wednesday night to sweep their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
Jones finished with 30 saves, 14 of them in the second period of Game 4.
“We’re playing well going into the second round,” stated defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. “Everybody is contributing if it’s offensively, blocking shots, taking a hit. Everybody is doing what they have to for us to win.”
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San Jose outscored Anaheim 16-4 in this four-game series. In the middle period on Wednesday, the Sharks struggled significantly, and several of the team’s players credited Jones with keeping it from becoming a total disaster. During that frame, the goaltender helped kill three of San Jose’s four penalties of the night.
Marcus Sorensen’s goal in the first period, his third of the playoffs, gave San Jose a 1-0 lead. Anaheim’s Andrew Cogliano tied it 1-1 at 7:53 of the final period with a shot from the slot. Then just 1:16 later, the Sharks got up 2-1 when Vlasic’s point shot bounced off Tomas Hertl and into the net.
“I’m just really proud of our group, the resiliency, the composure,” stated Sharks coach Peter DeBoer. “We asked them to come into this series and play with composure. We knew what we were going to get, they were going to try to push us out of the series physically. We stood in there and did it without taking penalties and with discipline.”
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The Sharks will next visit the Vegas Golden Knights for Game 1 of the Western Conference second-round playoff series. The date and time of that opening game have yet to be announced. The Golden Knights also swept the Los Angeles Kings in four games.
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