By Taylor Lupetti (@tayclupetti ):
The San Jose Sharks brought their brooms to Game 4 of Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as they swept the Anaheim Ducks with a 2-1 win.
The sweep was the second in Sharks history and sets them up to play the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2, who are also coming off a sweep of the Los Angeles Kings.
Wednesday night featured a different style of play for the Sharks, and although they didn’t score eight goals, defense held strong at it did all series to clinch the win.
San Jose found the back of the net first for the third time in the series with left-wing forward Marcus Sorensen’s rebound goal less than 6 minutes into the first period.
Following a scoreless second period, Ducks’ Rickard Rackell scored 27 seconds into the third.
A coach’s challenge from San Jose coach Peter DeBoer reviewed the goal to review the possibility of offsides. The call that favored the Sharks and the scored remained 1-0.
Seven minutes later however, Anaheim redeemed its goal thanks to the former NHL ironman, center Andrew Cogliano.
A little over a minute later, center Tomas Hertl came in clutch with the game-winning, series-ending goal for the Sharks 9:09 into the third to break the 1-1 tie.
Despite the Ducks’ best efforts with 31 shots on goal, San Jose goaltender was a brick wall in front of the net with 30 saves. Anaheim goaltender John Gibson stopped 22 pucks for the night.
The series against the Knights begins next week with the first two games at the T-Mobile Arena.