Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports
Sunday is usually a day for a little “R&R” and preparing for the week ahead, but that wasn’t the case this past Sunday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, home to the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks were looking to continue their winning streak, but their rivals and opposing team, the San Jose Sharks, had other plans.
The Ducks hadn’t lost a game since opening night on October 9th and they were trying to keep that streak up for as long as possible and go for an eighth win. After going two weeks with play that has not been up to par with the teams they were up against, San Jose was ready to kick it up a notch and come out with a victory. Just a night after they had faced what is described as an “embarrassing” home loss against the Buffalo Sabres, the Sharks were ready to unleash their anger and frustration on the Ducks.
Both teams put up a fight during the game, literally. The Ducks didn’t waste any time when it came to being physical, and for every punch San Jose had thrown at them, the Ducks shot back just the same. With the game seeing over 160 combined minutes of penalties, including both the altercations, and the power plays (127 combined penalty minutes alone in the third period,) it had to have been the most tense game the season has seen so far, and the season is still in it’s early stages, so brace yourself! Though it is unfortunate that it had to turn physical, it is described as “old-time hockey” and some people appreciate it in a very strange way.
The first period saw zero goals, but plenty of shots taken, while the second and third periods were full of goals, penalties, and explosions of pent up anger. Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf was sent off for fighting San Jose’s James Sheppard. Among those sent off of the ice from Anaheim was Corey Perry and San Jose’s Justin Braun both left with misconducts in the third period, and just minutes after that, a multi-player brawl broke out in the corner.
Even further into the third period, officials ruled that San Jose’s John Scott left the bench to engage in an altercation that finally came to an end with Anaheim’s goalie Frederik Andersen pulling players off of each other. That assumption is going to possibly lead to Scott being suspended, though nothing is confirmed yet, and San Jose’s coach, Todd McLellan states that this did not happen and that it was a mistake. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there, San Jose’s Adam Burish got a misconduct penalty towards the end of the game for scrapping with Anaheim’s Nate Thompson.
Though a lot of negativity occurred and the tension was rising, San Jose’s Joe Pavelski and Tommy Wingels took advantage of power-play time and scored a goal each. Teammates Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored for the aggressive team. Patrick Marleau and Logan Couture of the team each had two assists.
Andersen admits that his team was not ready, saying that “they won last night, so they came out strong, and we weren’t ready for that.” While San Jose’s goalie, Antti Niemi, whose shutout bid was ended by Matt Belesky with 5:07 to play, had the opposite to say about the scrums and scuffles. Niemi believes that a “bruising victory can bring a team together,” but we will not find that out until we see their chemistry and play time in the next game.
These are two good teams that do not like each other, and things like this can just happen, no matter how each team is doing. It is a rivalry and nothing less.
The final score of the game was 4-1. San Jose won the game just as they had fought to do.
