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Marleau, Nabokov help Sharks topple Canucks

Dec 24, 2008 - 6:44 AM By Michael Duca PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Captain Patrick Marleau had a power-play goal and set up two others and Evgeni Nabokov stopped all 33 shots he faced as the San Jose Sharks throttled the Vancouver Canucks, 5-0, on Tuesday.

Joe Thornton and Devin Setoguchi contributed a goal and an assist apiece while defenseman Rob Blake and Tomas Plihal also tallied for the Sharks, who earned their second straight win following its first set of back-to-back losses this season.

Nabokov stopped four shots in the first period, 16 in the second and 13 in the third for his second shutout of the campaign and 42nd career.

"You can look at (the blowout win) two ways," Nabokov said. "It's nice to have the big win. But are we going to have wins like this in the playoffs?

"But, it's a nice Christmas present for the crowd, good entertainment."

It was the first meeting between two of the Western Conference's division leaders and San Jose registered points for the 29th straight game on home ice.

San Jose opened the scoring just 4:22 into the contest when Blake stuffed home a rebound from the right doorstep off Ryane Clowe's shot from the rear boards.

"It's essential (to our style of play) for the defensemen to be part of our attack," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "They do it responsibly, though. It's tough to prevent a four-man attack. A three-man attack most teams can handle, so we want to continue that four-man attack."

The Sharks scored again 93 seconds later - 17 seconds into a roughing penalty to Henrik Sedin.

Marleau picked up a rebound behind the net, skated out to the left circle and roofed a hard shot over goaltender Cory Schneider's right shoulder for his team-leading 18th goal.

"We knew they had a tough game last night (a 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks)," Marleau said. "We wanted to establish our game early. Blake got the early goal, then a couple of power plays we converted put a lot of pressure on them."

Defenseman Mattias Ohlund was whistled for boarding Tom Cavanagh 6:29 into the opening session, and the San Jose power play again converted 40 seconds later with Setoguchi receiving credit for his 17th goal on a deflection of a shot by Marleau.

"We got off to an early start," Setoguchi said. "It's kind of hard to come back from that kind of deficit, bing, bang, boom, right off the start."

The second period started worse than the first for Vancouver.

Thornton scored his ninth goal when he took a pass parked in front of the crease and backhanded it past Schneider 24 seconds into the session.

"(Marleau) made a good play to steal the puck and Setoguchi threw it at the net with me in front," Thornton said. "I pretty much had an open net. It was a good play by those two."

Ryan Kesler's lackadaisical pass in his own end off the faceoff wound up on the stick of Plihal, who slapped it between Schneider's pads to close the scoring, 43 seconds into the second.

"You can't turn the puck over against a team that has that much offensive skill," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "We turned it over from the start, and we got in trouble."

Schneider's night mercifully ended following the tally, as Curtis Sanford took over in net. Schneider finished with 10 saves and Sanford stopped all 16 shots he faced.

"That's why you've got to have a short memory as a goalie," said Schneider, who played in just his seventh game this season. "Just learn your lessons from tonight, move on, and be better the next day.

"We had to make a change, I wasn't making some of the big saves I had to make. It was the right move."