Mr Gixxer
10-13-2002, 06:45 PM
WELCOME BACK KLATTER
Paint his helmet orange and hand the man a spade. In typical workman-like fashion it was Trent Klatt salvaging a tenacious Vancouver effort by scoring the game-winner from his stomach late in the third thus ending the Shark's rein over the Canucks.
It was a much different team lining-up across from the Canucks than the Calgary squad they dominated in the season-opener. The Canucks lost all five meetings with the gritty Sharks last season by a combined total of 19 goals to 8, but a gutsy game from the bottom three lines earned Vancouver the win and a 2-0-0 record to start the year.
Only 45 seconds after Canuck-killer Marco Sturm knotted the score at 3-3 late in the third, Trent Klatt swiped a beautiful Daniel Sedin cross-crease feed past Miikka Kiprusoff while being hauled down by Marcus Ragnarsson.
"Things looked in dire straights and they dug us right out," said coach Marc Crawford of the line of the Sedins and Klatt. "It was a terrific shift by the whole line and was as hard a working goal as you're ever going to see."
After dominating the season opener, it was the big line of Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund struggling to a combined minus 5 rating against the Sharks, while the depth players earned the victory. With both Trevor Linden and Jan Hlavac sitting out with knee injuries, utility forward Todd Warriner and centre Harold Druken stepped in and played a spirited game on a line with Fedor Fedorov, while the fourth line of Matt Cooke, Trevor Letowski and Artem Chubarov played solid defense hounding the Sharks' top snipers all night.
"I thought Chub played particularly well," said Crawford. "That whole line played really well. It's a tough assignment playing against Owen Nolan and Vincent Damphousse - they did a very good job."
Teemu Selanne opened the scoring just under seven minutes into the first taking a return feed from Marco Sturm at the right face off dot and snapping a quick shot past Dan Cloutier.
Despite the goal, Cloutier was stellar thwarting several clear-cut scoring chances, including stops off Jonathan Cheechoo in the slot and Selanne on a two-on-one.
Matt Cooke lit a fire under the Vancouver bench late in the period by throwing a solid shoulder on the chin of Matt Bradley behind the San Jose goal. Trent Klatt followed the hit up with one of his own, hammering Bryan Marchment to the ice which drew a raucous cheer from the sold-out G.M. Place crowd. Seeking retribution on the same shift, Marchment tried to knock Klatt's head off with a vicious elbow that caught nothing but air and the referee's attention. After Ragnarsson took a boarding call to put his team two men down, Brent Sopel saved a flagging power play by wiring a point shot high past Miikka Kiprusoff to draw even with less than a minute remaining in the period.
"It was a 5-on-3 and Eddie just slid it over to me and I had time to step in and let it go," said Sopel. "I knew there was a guy in front of me and I just didn't want to get it blocked. I got it on net and it went in."
Warriner finished a beautiful passing play seconds after an Adam Graves hooking penalty expired to put Vancouver ahead 2-1 in a tight-checking second period. Crawford threw the makeshift line of Fedorov, Druken and Warriner out after the Canucks first two units struggled to get quality shots on goal.
"The puck went behind the net and I just kind of chipped it to Fedorov," said Druken. "He spotted Warriner who put it away real quick. It was good."
Klatt then lifted the Canucks to a two goal lead late in the second with Bryan Marchment off for four minutes for high-sticking Todd Bertuzzi behind the San Jose goal. After struggling on their first powerplay shift, the Sedins cycled the puck down low before Henrik walked out from the corner and flipped a pass over a defender's stick to a waiting Klatt on the doorstep.
Marco Sturm drew San Jose within one early in the third with a solo effort. Out muscling Chubarov behind the Vancouver net, Sturm slid one by Cloutier on a lightening-fast wraparound.
Sturm was ruled to have tied the game after a lengthy video review when he crashed into Cloutier and had the puck dribble in behind him - despite Mattias Ohlund's best efforts to swipe it out of danger with his glove.
Klatt restored Vancouver's lead 46 seconds later when, again off the cycle, Daniel fired a pass through the crease that Klatt got a stick on.
"We needed a big shift and we got that tonight," said Crawford. "Sedin, Sedin and especially Klatt just went out and were very workman like. It was a great goal to win the game. It was a goal that was befitting of being a winning goal if there ever was one."
Cooke, who layed-out at least five San Jose skaters with a few trademark kamikaze hits over the course of the game, salted the win with an empty netter at 19:20 after some tense moments in the Vancouver end.
Some good Vancouver penalty killing by Letowski, Chubarov and defenseman Murray Baron kept the Sharks' powerplay off the board on four tries while Vancouver was two for seven with the man advantage.
Cloutier stopped 19 of 22 shots- many of them quality chances while Kiprusoff stopped 20 of 24.
Paint his helmet orange and hand the man a spade. In typical workman-like fashion it was Trent Klatt salvaging a tenacious Vancouver effort by scoring the game-winner from his stomach late in the third thus ending the Shark's rein over the Canucks.
It was a much different team lining-up across from the Canucks than the Calgary squad they dominated in the season-opener. The Canucks lost all five meetings with the gritty Sharks last season by a combined total of 19 goals to 8, but a gutsy game from the bottom three lines earned Vancouver the win and a 2-0-0 record to start the year.
Only 45 seconds after Canuck-killer Marco Sturm knotted the score at 3-3 late in the third, Trent Klatt swiped a beautiful Daniel Sedin cross-crease feed past Miikka Kiprusoff while being hauled down by Marcus Ragnarsson.
"Things looked in dire straights and they dug us right out," said coach Marc Crawford of the line of the Sedins and Klatt. "It was a terrific shift by the whole line and was as hard a working goal as you're ever going to see."
After dominating the season opener, it was the big line of Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund struggling to a combined minus 5 rating against the Sharks, while the depth players earned the victory. With both Trevor Linden and Jan Hlavac sitting out with knee injuries, utility forward Todd Warriner and centre Harold Druken stepped in and played a spirited game on a line with Fedor Fedorov, while the fourth line of Matt Cooke, Trevor Letowski and Artem Chubarov played solid defense hounding the Sharks' top snipers all night.
"I thought Chub played particularly well," said Crawford. "That whole line played really well. It's a tough assignment playing against Owen Nolan and Vincent Damphousse - they did a very good job."
Teemu Selanne opened the scoring just under seven minutes into the first taking a return feed from Marco Sturm at the right face off dot and snapping a quick shot past Dan Cloutier.
Despite the goal, Cloutier was stellar thwarting several clear-cut scoring chances, including stops off Jonathan Cheechoo in the slot and Selanne on a two-on-one.
Matt Cooke lit a fire under the Vancouver bench late in the period by throwing a solid shoulder on the chin of Matt Bradley behind the San Jose goal. Trent Klatt followed the hit up with one of his own, hammering Bryan Marchment to the ice which drew a raucous cheer from the sold-out G.M. Place crowd. Seeking retribution on the same shift, Marchment tried to knock Klatt's head off with a vicious elbow that caught nothing but air and the referee's attention. After Ragnarsson took a boarding call to put his team two men down, Brent Sopel saved a flagging power play by wiring a point shot high past Miikka Kiprusoff to draw even with less than a minute remaining in the period.
"It was a 5-on-3 and Eddie just slid it over to me and I had time to step in and let it go," said Sopel. "I knew there was a guy in front of me and I just didn't want to get it blocked. I got it on net and it went in."
Warriner finished a beautiful passing play seconds after an Adam Graves hooking penalty expired to put Vancouver ahead 2-1 in a tight-checking second period. Crawford threw the makeshift line of Fedorov, Druken and Warriner out after the Canucks first two units struggled to get quality shots on goal.
"The puck went behind the net and I just kind of chipped it to Fedorov," said Druken. "He spotted Warriner who put it away real quick. It was good."
Klatt then lifted the Canucks to a two goal lead late in the second with Bryan Marchment off for four minutes for high-sticking Todd Bertuzzi behind the San Jose goal. After struggling on their first powerplay shift, the Sedins cycled the puck down low before Henrik walked out from the corner and flipped a pass over a defender's stick to a waiting Klatt on the doorstep.
Marco Sturm drew San Jose within one early in the third with a solo effort. Out muscling Chubarov behind the Vancouver net, Sturm slid one by Cloutier on a lightening-fast wraparound.
Sturm was ruled to have tied the game after a lengthy video review when he crashed into Cloutier and had the puck dribble in behind him - despite Mattias Ohlund's best efforts to swipe it out of danger with his glove.
Klatt restored Vancouver's lead 46 seconds later when, again off the cycle, Daniel fired a pass through the crease that Klatt got a stick on.
"We needed a big shift and we got that tonight," said Crawford. "Sedin, Sedin and especially Klatt just went out and were very workman like. It was a great goal to win the game. It was a goal that was befitting of being a winning goal if there ever was one."
Cooke, who layed-out at least five San Jose skaters with a few trademark kamikaze hits over the course of the game, salted the win with an empty netter at 19:20 after some tense moments in the Vancouver end.
Some good Vancouver penalty killing by Letowski, Chubarov and defenseman Murray Baron kept the Sharks' powerplay off the board on four tries while Vancouver was two for seven with the man advantage.
Cloutier stopped 19 of 22 shots- many of them quality chances while Kiprusoff stopped 20 of 24.