The San Jose Sharks completed their sweep of the Anaheim Ducks in Game 4 Wednesday night at SAP Center.
San Jose went with the same lineup from Game 3 in Game 4 against the Anaheim Ducks. Surprisingly, Anaheim did as well. It worked out about as well as you’d expect it given the way the rest of the series had gone.
San Jose had 11 out of the first 13 shot attempts in the game, the last of which was Markus Sorenson’s 3rd goal of the playoffs. It was yet another goal by the Sharks’ fourth line, who terrorized the Ducks all series.
The line of Marcus Sorenson, Eric Fehr and Melker Karlsson combined for eight points including four goals against Anaheim.
The Ducks came on as the period went on and even took a 10-9 lead in shots heading into the first intermission, but they couldn’t find the back of the net. Scoring was an issue for Anaheim all series.
San Jose outscored Anaheim 16-4 in the series sweep. Andrew Cogliano’s third period goal was just the team’s second goal at 5-on-5 in the series, and the Ducks only third period goal.
Martin Jones made 30 saves, including a number of great stops in tight on Corey Perry to keep him off the scoresheet. The Ducks forward was a shell of the himself against the Sharks, recording just 8 penalty minutes and 0 points in 4 games.
Jones easily had his best game of the series, and was rightly named the game’s first star.
Discipline had been an issue for the Ducks in the series’ first three games. Anaheim was out penalized 50-22 in penalty minutes through Game 3. The Sharks had received 17 power plays to the Ducks’ eight.
It was a different story Wednesday. The Ducks largely outplayed the Sharks after an early push by the home team. Anaheim outshot San Jose 14-6 in the second period, and had a 3-2 edge in powerplays. They were able to maintain their composure, but they just couldn’t find a way to solve Martin Jones.
Anaheim thought they their answer with a Rickard Rakell power play goal 27 seconds into the third period, but the goal was reviewed and called offsides.
The Ducks finally found their breakthrough when Andrew Cogliano’s close shot squeaked through Martin Jones’ pads at 7:53 of the third period to tie the game at 1-1.
But it didn’t take long for the Sharks to respond. Tomas Hertl’s deflection of a Marc-Edouard Vlasic point shot restored the Sharks’ lead for good 1 minute and 16 seconds later.
San Jose’s sweep of Anaheim was the second sweep in franchise history.
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The Sharks move on to face the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2.
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