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Michalek keeps Sharks rolling on road

Dec 29, 2007 - 4:54 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Milan Michalek extended the San Jose Sharks' brilliance on the road.

Michalek scored the game's only goal with 3:05 to play to lift the Sharks to a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Friday night.

Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves as San Jose won its eighth straight road game to improve to an NHL-best 14-3-2 away from home this season.

"We did a decent job by not allowing them too many 2-on-1s or breakaways," Nabokov said. "It's always the key in a game like this to stay tight and stay patient. And hopefully something good will happen. We're fortunate that it's happened towards our advantage."

The Sharks also continued their dominance of St. Louis, improving to 9-1-1 in the last 11 meetings between the teams.

The game appeared headed for overtime before a fluke bounced help Michalek decide it.

The Sharks' Steve Bernier threw a pass at the net that caromed off the skate of Blues defenseman Eric Brewer to an onrushing Michalek, who ripped a one-timer that beat goaltender Manny Legace to the glove side.

"I was right at a good spot and I put the puck back in," Bernier said. "I had a very good feeling. We had a lot of scoring chances, they had a lot of scoring chances. Both goalies played great."

It was the 13th goal of the season and third in the past two games for Michalek, who is tied with captain Joe Thornton for the team's goal-scoring lead.

Legace bounced back from a dismal effort in his last outing, making 17 saves and stopping Christian Ehrhoff's penalty shot with 8:49 to play, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Blues from dropping their third straight game.

The Blues have not scored since the third period of Sunday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Atlanta Thrashers, a stretch of 134 minutes, 11 seconds.

"We played well enough to get a couple of goals," Legace said. "It's unfortunate that we didn't. We've had a tough week so far."

A fast-paced opening period in which both teams collected 10 shots slowed considerably in the middle session.

San Jose managed just two shots on goal in the period despite having a pair of power-play opportunities.

Thornton had the best chances, getting denied by Legace on the doorstep just over five minutes into the period and then misfiring with a wide-open net on the man advantage.

The Blues had a 5-on-3 for 1:35 in the final minutes of the period but were turned away twice by Nabokov.

"There wasn't much space on the ice," Sharks coach Ron Wilson. "Both teams are pretty quick. They did a good job defending. Our penalty-killing was really good tonight. We got a couple of bounces along the way. The 5- on-3 was unbelievable how we pretty much snuffed that out with maybe one scoring chance.

"I was really happy about that because that ended up probably being the turning point of the game."

Keith Tkachuk was stopped on the doorstep before Nabokov flashed out his left pad to stymie Martin Rucinsky's stuff attempt at the right post with 2:10 to go.

"We generated lots of shots in terms of chances," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "Our power play was always good as it's ever been and yet we failed to score on it. It was an intense, physical man's game. We battle them tooth-and-nail. We played a hard game. But we weren't good enough to get it done."

Ehrhoff had the best chance to break the tie when he was dragged down by Brewer after taking a pass while coming out of the penalty box.

On the penalty shot attempt, Ehrhoff almost came to a halt in front of the net before his backhander was blocked by Legace, making him 3-for-3 for his career.