Patrick Marleau scored one goal and set up another to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in game one of their Western Conference semi-final series.
The Oilers drew first blood just 2:32 seconds into the game when Jaroslav Spacek scored on the power play. After that, Sharks goalie Vesa Toskala shut down the Oilers, making a total of 15 saves to earn his fifth straight post season victory.
Marleau evened the game at the 7:42 mark of the first period before setting up Christian Ehrhoff for the winning goal just over three minutes into the second stanza. The San Jose forecheck smothered the Oilers attack in the second period, preventing the Oilers from getting a shot on goal for the first 11:52.
In the third period, the Sharks shut down the Edmonton attack early, preventing the registering a shot for the first six minutes of the period before holding off a desperation surge in the game's final minutes.
'They made it difficult the last couple of minutes,' admitted Sharks coach Ron Wilson. 'We managed to weather the storm, and I'm happy with our effort. We just wanted to establish a forecheck. [Hitting] got contagious, the way our crowd was responding to every hit, and we just built off that.'
Milan Michalek had two assists for the Sharks while Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson played well, making 28 saves in a losing cause.
'We were standing still at the blue line a lot,' said a frustrated Oilers coach Craig MacTavish after the game. 'I don't know whether it was tough for our team to change the mentality (from the first round). I was really happy with our start, but they took it to us physically in the second period.'
Ville Nieminen led the Sharks forecheckers with 15 hits. He said the strong attack was part of the team's game plan. 'We noticed earlier in the playoffs that teams who had a little layoff looked flat, so the first thing in our minds was getting our legs moving. It was one of those games where you could do some hitting.'
Neither team will have much time to rest before heading back onto the ice. Game 2 is scheduled for Monday night at the Shark Tank in San Jose.
