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SAN JOSE – There were a few cases in the Sharks Stanley Cup playoff race where a call on the ice changed the momentum of the game. In Match 2 against the Avalanche, you do not have to look any further than setting up Colorado's second goal.
Before Tyson Barrie gave the Avs a 2-1 lead in the second period, the puck was returned from the Colorado area and Mikko Rantanen ran on the ice afterwards. Those watching the match wondered if the whistle should have been played, and the defensive duo Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Brent Burns of San Jose seemed to slow down a bit, as if waiting for the call. Instead, the game went on and Rantanen set in motion the game that would lead to Barrie's decisive goal in Colorado's 4-3 win.
Afterwards, the players and coaches were still wondering if the puck had been frozen and if the correct call had been made.
"It was the right choice," Vlasic told reporters after the match, adding, "I'll take the road and wait for the league apology tomorrow."
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar spoke more deeply about the lack of ice call, comparing the game to that of the first match between JT Compher and Erik Karlsson – a call that ended to go to San Jose.
"I felt like it was exactly the same as the icing here the other night when Karlsson followed the inner track on Compher. They are in a race and they make it explode for the ice because Karlsson had the inner way, "said Bednar. "For me in this one, I just watch Mikko get on the ice, he has his head spinning and he's going in the right zone, he's on the inside track, I think it was Vlasic, on the pole. It seems to me that Mikko was going to get there first and let him go. "
Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer was not so enthusiastic about talking about the play, telling the media if he had seen any unimportant icing.
"It does not matter whether this is the case or not," said DeBoer. "Our players did and they gave up. They relaxed for a minute and that was obviously not the case. I think the lesson is that you do not assume anything. It's the playoffs – play and make sure. "
The goal tipped the ice in favor of Colorado, and they were able to score again before the second period ended to take a 3-1 lead in the intermission. Even with a late spurt in the third period thanks to Brent Burns' two goals, San Jose's second-half performance – cold or otherwise – had already hurt.
"We had a 1-0 lead," said Vlasic. "I think we should have, not put an end to it, but poured on the second and third and they would have been done, we kept them in there.
Logan Couture has accepted. "We should have been two or three after the first, we had too pretty looks not to score a second and give us a bigger lead," he said. "They found their game in the second and played on our side."
With the series now blocked at every game, the Sharks can only hope to put Sunday's contest in the rear-view mirror as quickly as possible and prepare for the third game in Denver on Tuesday.
"I hope we'll be successful soon and that we'll be ready for the next game," said Couture about Match 2. "Right now, I'm pretty frustrated and disappointed."
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