Sharks Dominate Hawks, 7-1, On National TV
March 13, 2007

Evgeni Nabokov saved 18 of 19 shots and Bill Guerin scored his first,
second and third goals as a Shark as San Jose dominated the Chicago
Blackhawks on Tuesday night in San Jose.

Click here for video highlights from Tuesday's game. Click here for
photos from Tuesday's game.

The San Jose Sharks looked to grab their ninth point in their last
five games when the Chicago Blackhawks came to town.

The red-hot Evgeni Nabokov looked across at Patrick Lalime as his
Russian Olympic teammate Nikolai Khabibulin took the night off. Ron
Wilson gave Joe Pavelski the night off to rest and put Mark Bell in
his slot against his former club.

San Jose had the game's first power play, but came up empty. They
continued the pressure when even strength play returned and the
Sharks stayed the aggressors. Mike Grier set up Curtis Brown in close
for one opportunity, but Lalime turned away the redirect.

Guerin scores his first as a Shark.Lalime wouldn't be as lucky seven
minutes into the first when Bill Guerin struck for his first as a
Shark. Beating his defender to a Christian Ehrhoff dump-in, Guerin
swiped the puck toward Lalime and beat him between the pads.
Following a Steve Bernier shot a minute later, San Jose was
outshooting Chicago 12-1.

The offensive press kept coming as Team Teal made it 2-0. This time,
Guerin played the role as setup man and found Bell alone in front of
the slot. Bell took his time and went upstairs for the tally.

A Cam Barker penalty gave San Jose a power play to close out the
first, but they could not add to their 2-0 lead. After 20 minutes,
Team Teal was outshooting Chicago 16-2 and both Blackhawks shots were
well outside of scoring range.

Early in the second, it appeared as if Chicago was onto their first
scoring chance of the night was they created a two-on-one rush.
However, a nifty reach by Craig Rivet broke up the play.

When Martin Havlat put on a mini one-man show, including a breakaway
and a wraparound, Nabokov was there to turn him away.

While Chicago began surging on the shot chart early in the second,
posting nine shots to the Sharks one, but it was the Sharks second
shot that lit the lamp. Skating behind Lalime, Thornton fed Michalek
out front and he slapped it short side on the Chicago netminder.

San Jose has two power play opportunities late in the second, but
would have to settle for keeping the lead at 3-0 after 40 minutes.

Brown and Williams take the draw.Five minutes into the third, the
score moved to 4-0. Jonathan Cheechoo was controlling play, first
firing a shot on net and then retrieving the rebound himself.
Cheechoo then circled around front and fed Scott Hannan at the point.
The British Columbia product fired on net seeing the traffic in front
and Thornton tucked in the rebound.

Fisticuffs nearly broke out when Steve Bernier was hauled down from
behind by Danny Richmond and only a struggling linesman could keep
them apart. On the play, Clowe had already been whistled for
interference and Chicago went on the power play.

When even strength play returned, the Sharks jumped back to the
attack. Thornton helped propel Grier and Michalek on a two-on-one and
they were off to the races. Grier fed Michalek who then drew Lalime
over before returning the puck to Grier who fired it in, making it 5-
0.

Only a diving Chicago prevented an easy conversion on a following odd-
man Sharks rush, but Team Teal would earn a power play on that play
and convert for a 6-0 advantage. San Jose would not let the puck
leave the zone and finally scored when Marleau dished to Guerin and
he stuffed in the wrap-around for his second Sharks tally.

With just 3:30 to go in the game, Martin Lapointe spoiled Nabokov's
bid for his fourth shutout in his past five starts, scoring an
unassisted goal to make it a 6-1 game.

Not to be done however, the Sharks closed out the game in style. With
17 seconds to play, Marleau made a tape-to-tape feed to Guerin who
snuck behind the Chicago defense. Guerin swooped in one-on-one
against Lalime, but was hooked on the arm and missed the backhand bid
at the hat trick.

However, referee Kerry Fraser deemed that Guerin was clear of his
defender and was awarded a penalty shot with just 12.3 seconds
remaining. The penalty shot was the first of Guerin's 14-year NHL
career. Guerin drove into the zone and whipped a forehand wrist shot
through Lalime's five-hole sending the capacity crowd at HP Pavilion
into a frenzy. The goal made it 7-1, the final total of the game.

LINES
Michalek-Thornton-Cheechoo
Bell-Marleau-Guerin
Rissmiller-Brown-Grier
Clowe-Goc-Bernier

McLaren-Ehrhoff
Hannan-Vlasic
Carle-Rivet

Nabokov-Toskala

NEXT GAME
San Jose will travel to Phoenix for a Thursday showdown at 6 p.m. on
FSN Bay Area, 98.5 KFOX and sjsharks.com.

FINAL 1 2 3 T
Chicago 0 0 1 1
San Jose 2 1 4 7

Video Highlights Game Photos
Official Scoresheet Official Super Stats
Boxscore Faceoffs
Play-by-Play Shift Chart
Rosters TOI - CHI|SJS
CHI: LAPOINTE, M. (16:30 in 3rd)
SJS: GUERIN, B. (07:04 in 1st), BELL, M. (10:42 in 1st), MICHALEK,
M. (13:11 in 2nd), THORNTON, J. (05:34 in 3rd), GRIER, M. (10:30 in
3rd), GUERIN, B. (PPG, 13:05 in 3rd), GUERIN, B. (19:47 in 3rd)