By Daniel Reedy (@AmericanReedy ):
This first-round matchup of division foes was supposed to be a tight contest.
Evander Kane didn’t get the memo.
In his first NHL playoff game, the newest San Jose Sharks winger scored two goals, leading his team to a 3-0 win in Game 1.
Kane opened the scoring at 7:07 of the second period, wristing a shot past Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson — from directly in front of the net — thanks to a feed from Sharks forward Joe Pavelski.
Less than seven minutes later, Kane caught another on-target pass from Pavelski and slid the puck past a fooled Gibson. Since his trade to San Jose, Kane has scored 11 goals with 16 points in just 18 games.
“It was nice to finally get out in the playoff atmosphere, and it was fun to finally get my first playoff win,” Kane said in a postgame interview. “It’s nice to contribute. That’s my job. I feel confident in my abilities.”
Those two assists highlighted Pavelski on the stat sheet, but the Sharks captain also blocked three shots and was strong in the defensive zone.
San Jose blueliner Brent Burns closed out the scoring for the night with a prototypical shot through traffic from the point. The Sharks’ eccentric defenseman beat Gibson — with the help of two deflections off Duck legs — and unofficially clinched the game with a little under five minutes left in the second period.
Goaltender Martin Jones was characteristically solid in front of the net and made 25 saves in the shutout for San Jose.
The few close chances he allowed were mostly due to blatantly lucky bounces off the boards, but Anaheim failed to capitalize.
As is evident by the final score, the Ducks struggled to generate scoring chances all game long. Their top-3 regular season goal scorers — Rickard Rakell, Ondrej Kase, and Adam Henrique — managed just three combined shots on goal.
The faces of the franchise — Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry — got off just one shot on goal each.
The Sharks meanwhile, pressured the Anaheim defense throughout the night, peppering Gibson with 34 shots on goal — which doesn’t include the 13 shots that were blocked by Ducks.
San Jose’s young, speedy forwards found space in all three zones, skillfully carrying the puck and creating scoring chances that consistently penetrated Anaheim’s third-ranked defense.
Timo Meier, Tomas Hertl, and Chris Tierney shined for San Jose in the absence of playmaker Joe Thornton, whose 2018 playoff debut is still yet to be determined.
Sharks’ heroes from their 2016 Stanley Cup Final run, Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi, flashed in a series-opening game that couldn’t have gone much better for San Jose.
The Ducks’ lack of discipline is a storyline that may go largely underreported. Anaheim took six penalties — despite the NHL playoffs’ traditionally hands-off officiating.
Perry and center Ryan Kesler led the way in this regard — earning eight penalty minutes each.
“You can’t afford to take seven minor (penalties) and give the opposition an opportunity to practice their power play,” said Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle, who was caught looking down with disdain following the third goal, in a postgame interview.
Perry and Kesler are known agitators, but the Sharks kept composure and their taking of the high road helped earn them an early advantage in what should be a well-fought first round.
The puck drops for Game 2 at 7:30 pm on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
