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Marleau's two-goal performance keeps Sharks streaking

Mar 6, 2008 - 7:50 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Jonathan Cheechoo tied the game late in regulation and Patrick Marleau scored his second goal of the contest 3:05 into overtime as the San Jose Sharks posted a 3-2 win over the shorthanded Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.

All-Stars Joe Thornton and defenseman Brian Campbell each recorded an assist for San Jose (38-21-8), which has won seven straight and moved on point ahead of Anaheim (38-24-7) for fourth place in the Western Conference and climbed within of first-place Dallas (41-24-5) in the Pacific Division.

Both Anaheim and Dallas lost on Wednesday.

"Anytime you can chip in and help the team get two points, it's a great thing," Marleau said. "We stuck with it as a team tonight and stayed with it. We got a nice big goal from (Cheechoo) from Joe and Milan (Michalek). They were great all night again, and everybody's doing their part right now."

"We know how important these games are," Cheechoo added. "There's a few teams that are ahead of us. We passed Anaheim tonight, so we just have one more team to catch."

Jason Spezza scored both goals for Ottawa, which was without captain Daniel Alfredsson. The 35-year-old All-Star missed the contest due to a strained back muscle suffered in Monday's loss to Anaheim.

Spezza put the Senators up, 2-1, with 7:10 left in the third period. But Ottawa (37-24-7), which pulled even in points with idle Montreal (36-22-9) for the top spot in the Northeast Division despite the loss, was unable to hang on to the lead.

The Senators stormed out of the gate to a 16-3-0 start this season but have just 10 wins in their last 25 games.

"We got off to a great start, but maybe it caught up to us a little bit through the down time of the season and the tough months," Spezza said. "Everybody's excited to be playing again. We know what we're playing for. We feel like we still have a great chance to win the East.

"It doesn't matter where you're seeded. We'd like to be seeded as high as possible, but in a seven-game series, we feel we have a good opportunity to beat anyone."

San Jose tied the game at 2-2 with 2:44 left on a beautiful goal by Cheechoo. Thornton sent a cross-ice pass from the left side to a streaking Cheechoo, who stuck out his stick and tipped the puck past goaltender Martin Gerber and into the right side of the net for his 10th goal in 13 games.

"It was perfect," Cheechoo said. "Milan made some nice moves to get around a couple of guys. Joe was going with his speed, bumped it out to him, a perfect pass to his tape. I just drove the net and got it up."

In overtime, Marleau pounced on the rebound of defenseman Doug Murray's shot at the bottom of the left faceoff circle and sneaked it by Gerber, giving the Sharks the victory.

"Joe (Pavelski) just passed it out to me and I didn't get too much wood on it, but I think it just snuck it short side under his pad," Marleau said. "I didn't know if Pav knocked it in, but then he came flying around the net, so it was pretty good."

Gerber stopped 27 shots for Ottawa, which is just 1-4-1 in its last six games.

"It's disappointing. You get a lead late in the game and you should be able to take it home," Gerber said. "It's going back to hard work and simple play, cutting down on mistakes and keep it simple. Use our strength, which is our speed, and we were off that lately, so that's something we're trying to get back to. We'll just have to keep pushing."

Without linemate Alfredsson, Spezza did his best to help Ottawa snap out of its funk. The All-Star opened the scoring at 11:23 of the first period by deflecting a cross-ice pass by Dany Heatley into the right corner of the net.

San Jose tied it 58 seconds into the third, when Campbell made a short pass to Marleau, who beat Gerber to the glove side from the left circle during a man advantage.

"Soupy (Campbell) just made a great pass there and I was able to get some pretty good wood on it," Marleau said.

The Senators moved ahead when Spezza deflected a shot by Cory Stillman past screened netminder Evgeni Nabokov for a power-play goal.

Nabokov stopped 17 shots for San Jose, which won the first meeting between the teams since January 12, 2006.