Behind 3-2 Victory, Sharks Advance to WCSF
April 21, 2007

What a difference a year makes. Just 346 days ago, the 2005-06 San
Jose Sharks defeated a gritty Nashville Predators squad in five games
to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. On Friday night in
Nashville, the 2006-07 Sharks accomplished that very same feat,
eliminating the Predators for the second straight season with the 4-1
series victory.

Captain Patrick Marleau scored the series-clinching goal for the
second time in as many years against the Predators and was a dominant
offensive force in the final minutes of the second period and entire
third period.

"Just like last year he scored the clincher for us, and again he does
it tonight," said Joe Thornton. "He's just a big time player."

Like Marleau, Thornton produced in big spots throughout the series,
posting six assists in the series despite facing a barrage of capable
Nashville defenders.

"That's a great team over there," Thornton said. "They added some
really good players and we added some really good players too. That
was just two great teams going at it. It's just too bad one team had
to lose"

Veteran defenseman Craig Rivet, who had nearly seven more minutes of
ice time than any other Sharks player, was quick to sing the praises
of teammates Thornton and Marleau and the job they did offensively.

"I know the big men worked really hard down low," said Rivet. "I
think that's the identity of this team: big, strong and skilled. Joe
[Thornton], Billy [Guerin] and Patty [Marleau] had an outstanding
shift of just being really strong on the puck.

"I think it's one thing for a guy like him to have the puck, but you
need to give credit to the players that he's playing with to be able
to get into the area to be able to score guys. Guys like Cheech, like
Patty tonight. Moving into a spot where you can receive a pass. These
are things that goal scorers do. Not only is Joe a solid playmaker,
but he's playing with guys that can shoot the puck."

TURNING POINT
Scott Nichol's five-minute major and game misconduct for spearing
Christian Ehrhoff changed the entire complexion of the game on
Friday. At the time of the penalty, Nashville held a 2-1 lead and
appeared to be headed on the power play.

While the referee's arm was in the air, indicating that Ehrhoff was
about to be called for interference, Nichol decided not to take a hit
to draw a penalty for his team, but instead overreacted and
retaliated with a cheap shot. Nichol speared the blade of his stick
into Ehrhoff's groin and collected Nashville's sixth game misconduct
of the series in only five games.

"I don't know what it was," said Ehrhoff. "There was a normal battle
going on. I don't see why he could have been upset.

WILSON'S PEP TALK LOOMS LARGE
At his postgame press conference, Coach Ron Wilson admitted to
challenging his top unit of Thornton, Marleau and Guerin to get
things going and to dominate. Wilson first swapped Milan Michalek and
Thornton during the extended power play at the end of the second
period.

"Putting those guys together sometimes really gets Patty [Marleau]
going," said Wilson. "I didn't think he was effective the first half
of the game. So the idea there was to get a spark on the power play
and I was thinking of making that change anyway. So we carried it
through in the third period.

"They were getting to a lot of pucks. They were really hungry and
wanted to make a difference. That's what great players do."

"That last shift was unbelievable. And all I said to Joe with 10
minutes left was, `Its your time to dominate joe. Both ends.
Dominate.' And we went out and dominated without a doubt."

Thornton had a similar recollection of the discussion between him and
Ron.

"Ronny put us out there for the offensive draw and said, `Hey, do
something this shift.'"

HURRY UP AND WAIT
With half of the Western Conference teams still playing (#3 Vancouver
leads 3-2 over #6 Dallas, #1 Detroit tied 2-2 with #8 Calgary), the
Sharks seem eager to hurry home, only to wait to see who they will
play next round.

But perhaps more importantly, San Jose will have a handful of days to
get home and get rested before likely opening their Western
Conference Semifinal series on the road.

"For anybody that ever says it's tougher if you have more of a layoff
[before the second round], that's just not true," said Curtis
Brown. "It's real important, especially with the travel these two
teams have endured. To get a couple of days to be able to catch up on
some rest. I'd just as soon see all those series go long. It's a
marathon, not a sprint. It's huge to move on, but the quicker you can
do it, I believe there's an advantage to that."