• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Thornton scores twice as Sharks throttle Lightning

Jan 14, 2009 - 7:28 AM By Michael Duca PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Joe Thornton scored two goals and added an assist as the San Jose Sharks posted a 7-1 rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

Milan Michalek scored on a power play and set up two other goals while Joe Pavelski and Devin Setoguchi tallied and also recorded one assist apiece for the Sharks, who improved to 20-0-2 at HP Pavilion this season.

Ryane Clowe had a power-play goal and Tomas Plihal also found the back of the net while captain Patrick Marleau and defenseman Douglas Murray contributed two assists apiece.

It took just 2:17 for the league's most prolific line to give San Jose an advantage.

Thornton's centering pass from behind the goal line was wristed by Setoguchi over goaltender Karri Ramo's glove side for his 20th goal - and 27th point in his last 25 games.

With seven seconds remaining on a 4-on-3 power play, Thornton netted his 250th career goal. Marleau shoved defenseman Andrej Meszaros in the crease as Thornton used the opening to slide a shot across the crease and off the far post with 5:41 remaining in the first.

"My goals were all goal-scorer's goals, sitting in the crease and getting the easy ones," Thornton said sarcastically.

The Lightning halved the deficit 7:47 into the second when veteran Mark Recchi's slap shot from the right circle was deflected by Steven Stamkos past Evgeni Nabokov.

"You have to score when you have your chance to get back in, and score on the power play," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "There was a little five-minute stretch where I thought maybe we could squeeze something in, but then we had four penalties in a row called against us."

Thornton answered from the right edge of the crease midway through the second when he stuffed a rebound off Marleau's shot from the point.

"I didn't think we played too well at the start of the second," Thornton said. "But overall it was a good effort. After that goal, we said on the bench we wanted a fourth, fifth and sixth goal."

With Ryan Malone in the box for tripping, San Jose scored on its fourth power play when Michalek slipped a rebound off defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic's shot from the point past Ramo.

The Sharks tallied again with the man-advantage with 3.6 seconds left in the period after some beautiful passing from Michalek to Pavelski, who backhanded a centering feed from the right circle to Clowe in the slot for the goal.

Pavelski and Plihal scored two quick goals in the third period to seal the win.

San Jose coach Todd McLellan, who will coach the Western Conference in the All-Star Game, had been looking for his team to maintain the pressure when owning a lead in the third period.

"We've been in that situation many times this year where we didn't respond that way," McLellan said. "We didn't create many bad habits in that third period, that was what I've been looking for. We took advantage of a team that was tired and obviously wounded."

San Jose has seven players with at least 10 goals in the first half of the season and McLellan is pleased with the depth.

"Depth is essential," he said. "We can't just rely on the top line. It was nice to see Pavelski and Michalek on the scoresheet tonight, it's been a while for them. That depth is essential in the playoffs. Somebody will have a dry spell, and somebody else has to pick up that slack."

Stamkos, the first pick in the 2008 draft, was the only Lightning player to solve Nabokov, who finished with 24 saves.

"It's not an easy transition from playing juniors to playing against the best players in the world," Stamkos said. "I have some great NHL players on this team to help me, on and off the ice. I'm trying to learn as much as I can early in my career."