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Thornton, Marleau shine as Sharks blank Coyotes

Dec 12, 2006 - 5:40 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau did not score any goals, but each played a major role in leading the San Jose Sharks to a victory.

Thornton and Marleau each had three assists and Vesa Toskala made 23 saves as the Sharks downed the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-0.

Thornton, who had three assists in a 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday, has set up six of San Jose's last seven goals. The center has 27 assists this season.

"I don't know if it's Joe, or if people are finishing the chances he creates," San Jose coach Ron Wilson. "He creates a lot of stuff. Tonight, he could have had seven or eight points. Players like that, once they get kind of rolling, everything goes there way. Hopefully, Joe can climb up the points ladder and get where he deserves to be."

"We just weren't ready to play and they were ready to play," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "The talent and the caliber of the players that they have, you just can't take six penalties in the first period and expect to be in a hockey game.

"(Goaltender) Curtis (Joseph) was outstanding in the first period, and we gave ourselves a chance to get back in the game but there were too many guys that didn't play at the level we needed to play at, didn't compete against a good team such as the Sharks and, consequently, the score was flattering."

Toskala posted his seventh career shutout, rebounding from his last outing, when he surrendered a season-high five goals in a 5-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.

Milan Michalek also scored a goal and had an assist and Steve Bernier, Joe Pavelski and Curtis Brown added tallies for the Sharks, who went 2-for-9 on the power play.

"Yeah, I think we did a pretty good job of working down low and using our speed, which caused them to take some penalties," Brown said. "He (Joseph) made some pretty good saves, we threw a lot of rubber at him. We kept going at it and we finally got the one, and then a few more to follow."

Joseph recorded 30 saves for the Coyotes, who went scoreless in five power-play opportunities and lost for only the second time in their last seven games.

"I was just trying to do my job and keep it close, and unfortunately it just wasn't our best game," Joseph said. "I thought my balance was pretty good. That was the only thing that could have been in question was my balance, but I thought it was good."

"(Joseph) was great in the early going, when we had those power plays and we generated all kinds of chances," Wilson said.

San Jose outshot Phoenix, 22-6, in the first period en route to outshooting them in the game, 34-23. The Sharks lost all four homes games to the Coyotes last season.

"Definitely good to get one from Phoenix," Marleau said. "They had success in here last year and we knew that. We wanted to play a different type of game and make sure we got the two points. It doesn't change much, we know they will come in here and we will have to be ready for them again."