Saturday, October 09, 2010

Stockholm: A Split for the Sharks and Jackets

blue jackets,sharksThe NHL Premiere series in Stockholm concluded on Saturday, as the San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets split the opening two games of the season, the Sharks taking the opening contest on Friday, 3-2, and the Blue Jackets winning an overtime decision, 3-2. The Sharks do come away with 3 points in the standings, with their loss in overtime, so you could argue that they won the series in the end.

In the opening game, the Sharks were led by Antti Niemi, who not only earned the 2 points for the win, added an extra point by registering an assist on the Sharks' second goal of the game.  Also in the first contest, both Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski each picked up a pair of assists, helping to get their names in this blog post as multiple-point contributors.

The second game was a fairly tight affair, with the goaltending again coming to the forefront.  This time, it was Steve Mason who stood tall in the net, making 33 saves to pick up his first 2 points in the year.  The other player of note in this game was Kristian Huselius, who had a goal and an assist to propel the Blue Jackets offense to this win.

Let's see how the points broke down for our poolies in the draft...

Columbus Blue Jackets         San Jose Sharks
Antoine Vermette, FAllan1Antti Niemi, GAllan3
R.J. Umberger, FBenson1Ryane Clowe, FClayton3
Jakub Voracek, FDale B.0Joe Thornton, FDale C.2
Kristian Huselius, FDon3Dany Heatley, FJani1
Fedor Tyutin, DJani1Patrick Marleau, FLarry1
Anton Stralman, DJani2Antero Niittymaki, GNeil0
Rick Nash, FLeon1Dan Boyle, DRyan1
Mathieu Garon, GLeon0Joe Pavelski, FStuart2
Derrick Brassard, FPeter0Devin Setoguchi, FWes1
Kris Russell, DStuart0Thomas Greiss, GWes0
Steve Mason, GWes2Jason Demers, DWes1

It was a big series for Allan, Jani and Wes, who all came away from this home and home series with 4 points each.  After the early action on Saturday, all three teams are in the top six in pool scoring, so the series was pretty good success for them.  Clayton and Don fared well with their only player in this series, each picking up 3 points for their cause in these two games.

For most teams participating in this series, it wasn't too bad.

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