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Rissmiller tallies twice to lead Sharks past Blue Jackets

Jan 6, 2008 - 7:30 AM By Michael Duca PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Patrick Rissmiller doubled his season total with two goals and Evgeni Nabokov completed his 48th consecutive start with a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.

The Sharks own the league's best road record at 16-3-2 and its second-worst home mark at 7-9-4, but they still had revenge on their minds when the Blue Jackets came to town. Columbus handed San Jose one of its road losses during the first half of the season.

The game was tightly played in the first period, with neither team generating many scoring chances. Columbus took six shots, mustering their only scoring chance on a flurry just before the horn, while San Jose managed only four shots and one scoring chance.

The Sharks made one of their few opportunities count early in the second period, when defenseman Matt Carle took a shot from the right point through traffic. Rissmiller redirected it past Pascal Leclaire, beating the goaltender to the stick side just 89 seconds into the session.

"It went off my stick," Rissmiller said. "I was actually trying to screen the goalie and get out of the way. (Defenseamn Craig Rivet) did a nice job of getting it to Matt, and he had a nice lane to shoot (from)."

Just 2:02 later, the Sharks doubled the lead when Steve Bernier took a long pass from Milan Michalek and put a tremendous spin move on Blue Jackets defenseman Jan Hejda before slapping a shot between LeClaire's pads from the slot for a 2-0 advantage.

Fredrik Norrena replaced Leclaire - who became ill and could not continue - to start the third, but it made no difference as just 2:28 into the session, Joe Pavelski fed Rissmiller in the low slot for a one-timer just 2:28 into the period for a 3-0 bulge.

"We were in the middle of a change, and Rivet was able to hold off the pressure until we got back there," Pavelski said. "They made a play behind the net. The ice wasn't very good all night, and I think that kind of slowed the puck down. Their guy misjudged it, I jumped on it and turned, Riss gave a little holler and I was able to find him in front."

The goal gave Rissmiller the first two-tally game of his career.

"I just saw Pavs going around the net." Rissmiller said. "I was wide open and yelling for it. I just kind of put it on the net. It went through his legs. I can't say I was shooting it that way, but if you put it on the net, good things happen. If you're quick, he doesn't have time to get side to side."

The Blue Jackets made the game close in the third as they scored twice in a 2:14 span midway through the session. Andrew Murray stuffed the puck between Nabokov and the left goalpost at 8:21 to draw Columbus within two.

With Jeremy Roenick in the penalty box for cross-checking, Sergei Fedorov made it a one-goal contest by flipping the puck past the netminder with 9:25 remaining.

"We played that particular stretch very well," Fedorov said. "We put them on their heels, dumped the puck in and went in and got it. They're an experienced team, they got a couple of bounces. We were close, but we weren't close enough. That's reality."

Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock summed up his team's second one-goal loss on this road trip.

"We're not there yet," Hitchcock said. "We needed more competitive players to get over the hump."

Nabokov held the fort thereafter, finishing with 21 saves for the victory.