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Boucher gets shutout in debut as Sharks win fifth straight

Mar 2, 2008 - 6:10 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Brian Boucher made a pretty good first impression with his new team.

In his debut with the San Jose Sharks, Boucher made 23 saves to record his 14th career shutout en route to a 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.

Joe Pavelski and Mike Grier scored for the Sharks, who have won five consecutive games.

Boucher, who signed a one-year contract Tuesday, posted his first blanking since November 12, 2006 while with Chicago. In this one, he turned aside 11 shots in the first period, five more in the second and seven in the third.

"Tonight was special," Boucher said. "I'm really happy to first of all, get the win, and secondly, to get a shutout. It's pretty unbelievable."

Entering Saturday's contest, All-Star goaltender Evgeni Nabokov had started all but one of San Jose's 64 games this season.

With his impressive performance, Boucher becomes the front-runner for the team's backup duties. He was expected to compete with Dimitri Patzold and rookie Thomas Greiss, who have taken turns with the Sharks but currently are both in the minors.

"I've played in the minors all year, and to get an opportunity is really special for me," Boucher said. "To get a call to come here is a dream come true for me. I'm thrilled to be back in the NHL, and I want to fit in with this group of guys.

"They're a great group of guys and obviously, they've had success this year. If I can go in there and give Nabby some rest some nights and they want to do that, then great. Whatever I can do to help is all I'm going to do."

With the win, Ron Wilson surpassed Darryl Sutter as the Sharks' all-time winningest coach. He was impressed with his team's performance in this one.

"Pretty close to perfect, considering we've been on the road for eight games," said Wilson, who has a 193-132-43 record since taking over in 2002. "It was a tremendous effort against a desperate team. We got great goaltending early from Brian until we found our bearings.

"These guys came really hard early in the game. They've got great speed and they were shooting from everywhere and caught us off-guard a little bit. I was incredibly happy with the energy level."

Pavelski scored on a power play with 3:19 left in the opening period, providing all the offense Boucher needed. Pavelski, who has 15 goals on the season, has now tallied in three consecutive games.

"It was a 5-on-3 and we were moving the puck good," Pavelski said. "We had some good traffic in front and I just shot it on net. We stayed with it. That was our goal tonight. End of the road trip, there's always that excitement to get home after 17 days on the road."

With the goal, the Sharks also tied an NHL record by scoring first in 16 consecutive road contests.

Grier doubled the advantage just 58 seconds into the third with a shorthanded tally. After an errant pass by the Blues in the Sharks' zone, Grier raced down the ice, collected the puck off the boards and fired a wrist shot past All-Star netminder Manny Legace.

"My blocker was broken and I didn't realize it," Legace said. "I'm not making excuses, but maybe that one doesn't go in in the third period. Such a bad goal."

Legace stopped 32 shots for the Blues, who are winless in their last six games (0-5-1).

"You can lose hockey games, and then you lose games where you feel the effort wasn't strong enough," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "We know that our opponents are very good, but that wasn't satisfactory, that's for sure."