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Marleau leads third-period surge for Sharks

Feb 11, 2009 - 5:08 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- The San Jose Sharks waited until the final 20 minutes to show the league-leading Boston Bruins that they have not conceded the Presidents' Trophy.

Captain Patrick Marleau recorded a goal and two assists during a four-goal third period as the Sharks skated to a 5-2 victory over the Bruins in a battle of conference leaders.

Defenseman Rob Blake, Milan Michalek, All-Star Joe Thornton and Mike Grier also scored for the Western Conference-leading Sharks (37-7-7), who snapped a season-high three-game slide (0-1-2).

"All eyes were on this game tonight," said Sharks All-Star defenseman Dan Boyle, who recorded an assist. "I felt we really started playing our game in the third. I thought in the first two (periods), we were a little timid. We took over there in the third."

Ryane Clowe collected three assists and Evgeni Nabokov made 28 saves for San Jose, which posted just its second regulation win at Boston in 12 all-time visits.

"We played a great third," Clowe said. "Not only did we score a couple, we kept pouring it on. It was a great win, especially in a tough building like this."

Milan Lucic netted both goals and All-Star Tim Thomas stopped 26 shots for the Bruins, who failed to earn at least one point for the first time in 10 games (6-1-3). Boston also fell to 26-1-2 when leading after two periods.

"If we play our game, we can play against anyone," Boston's Patrice Bergeron said. "But we didn't do that in the third period. But give them credit, they played well."

"We just didn't have it tonight," Bruins coach Claude Julien added. "We went into the third period and I guess we didn't have enough energy to push back. ... They're the best team we've played so far this year. It'd be nice to get another shot at them. But there's a long way to go and a lot to be done before we get there."

Julien was eluding to a meeting in the Stanley Cup Finals, as Boston and San Jose do not face off again during the regular season.

Entering with an NHL-best 39-8-7 record, the Bruins carried a slim 2-1 lead into the third. But the Sharks, who have trailed after two sessions just 12 times in 51 games this season, erupted for three goals in a span of 6 minutes, 16 seconds over the first half of the final period to gain control.

"The biggest thing was, we got on our toes instead of our heels," San Jose coach Todd McLellan said. "We started to skate. When we skate, we're a good team. When we're not, we're very average."

Marleau began the spurt at 3:32. After defenseman Christian Ehrhoff's shot from the right point hit Boston blue-liner Dennis Wideman in front, Marleau buried the rebound for his team-leading 27th goal of the season.

"They came out hard and took advantage of some advantageous bounces," Thomas said.

Michalek put San Jose ahead at 7:28, when he beat Thomas high to the glove side from the slot after receiving a drop pass in the right faceoff dot by Boyle.

Making his second visit to Boston after being traded to San Jose in November 2005, Thornton doubled the Sharks' lead at 9:48. Jeered every time he touched the puck, Thornton had Devin Setoguchi's backhand pass from behind the net carom off his left skate and past Thomas.

Following a brief video review, the former Bruins captain was credited with his 13th tally.

"I love coming back here," said Thornton, who was drafted first overall by Boston in 1997. "Midway through the game, we turned it on. And usually when we turn it on, teams really can't handle us. That's what you saw tonight - our speed, our size, everything. I don't think you handle the Sharks for 60 minutes."

Grier capped the outburst with an empty-netter in the final minute.

"We played two great periods of hockey, just like we wanted to, and for some reason, we sat back (in the third)," Boston All-Star Marc Savard said. "You're not going to beat a team like that sitting back. We did that, and they took advantage."

Marleau was glad the Sharks were able to emerge victorious in Thornton's return to "Beantown."

"It was a nice victory, to come back here with Joe and a little team history with him," Marleau said. "It was nice to see a win for him."

Lucic began the scoring at 3:58 of the first, when he deposited a loose puck into a vacant right side of the net after Wideman's shot from the inner edge of the right circle was stopped.

Blake forged a 1-1 tie during a power play less than four minutes later, thanks to some help from Boston. The former Norris Trophy winner unleashed a slap shot from above the right circle that deflected off the stick of Bruins rookie Blake Wheeler, then the skate of Wideman before getting past Thomas at 7:18.

Lucic capped his second multi-goal effort of the season with 5:06 remaining in the period, knocking the rebound of Petteri Nokelainen's shot from the high slot by Nabokov.

"The first period, we weren't putting pucks in the right spots and they were coming out (of their) zone pretty clean," Marleau said.

Nabokov kept San Jose's margin at one by making a superb pad save on Savard with just over nine minutes to go in the middle period.