The San Jose Sharks smelled blood in the water coming into their Game 2 matchup with the Vancouver Canucks, but while they came out hard and played great defense in the second game in the series, the Sharks couldn’t muster up enough to get past the Canucks in regulation and we needed overtime hockey to determine a Game 2 winner.
Vancouver played markedly better in Game 2 as opposed to the sloppy Game 1 performance they turned in on Wednesday. They allowed a first period goal to Joe Thornton, but Ryan Kesler hard with two third period goals, one of which was unassisted, and the Canucks took a 2-1 lead that looked like it might hold up.
Antti Niemi played brilliant for two periods but the biggest play of the game came when he was off the ice as the Sharks brought an extra attacker with under two minutes left in the game and tied things up on a Patrick Marleau goal which was assisted by a killer move by Dan Boyle.
One question lots of Canucks fans have is what’s up with the Sedin brothers? Neither Henrik or Daniel have scored a single goal in the series thus far and are posting nothing but assists. Either the Sedin’s are struggling on their own or the Sharks are doing a brilliant job of containing them and taking plays away from them.
The question of what’s wrong with the Sedin brothers wasn’t answered in overtime, as the San Jose Sharks took a 2-0 series lead thanks to Raffi Torres scoring the game winning goal in the sixth minute of overtime.
This is a series that very well could go the distance, but the Sharks have identified a potentially fatal flaw in the Canucks plan of attack. Vancouver is a top heavy team, meaning their top two lines are outstanding but they thin out beyond that. With the Sedin brothers struggling, the Canucks are struggling from top to bottom with their lines and as long as that continues, and as long as Antti Niemi continues to be brilliant between the pipes, this could be a series that has the potential to go a full seven but ends prematurely.