Antti Niemi made 34 saves against his former team for his first shutout of the season and Jason Demers broke a scoreless tie late in the second period with his first goal to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 1-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
Niemi was tested often as San Jose was sluggish at the start and also helped kill off a power play late in the third period with a toe save against Jonathan Toews to give the Sharks their fourth straight win and sixth in the past seven games.
Niemi, who helped Chicago knock out San Jose on the way to winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, got the best of his former team in his 14th career shutout. He improved to 4-1 and has allowed only 10 goals in five games against the Blackhawks since signing with the Sharks before last season.
The Blackhawks have lost three straight games on a two-week road trip as the circus has taken over the United Center. After starting the annual trek with a win in Vancouver, Chicago has been outscored 15-4 in losses to Calgary, Edmonton and San Jose. Even a two-day respite in Las Vegas after a 9-2 loss in Edmonton on Saturday night was unable to shake the funk.
The Sharks got off to a good start on a two-game homestand against the teams that eliminated them in the Western Conference finals the past two seasons. San Jose hosts Vancouver on Saturday night in the first meeting between the teams since the Canucks won the conference final in five games last spring.
Despite being thoroughly outplayed for the first two periods, the Sharks had a 1-0 lead going into the third thanks to stellar play from Niemi and a fortuitous bounce on a power play.
Dave Bolland got sent off for tripping Brent Burns late in the second period and San Jose took just 4 seconds to turn that into the game's only goal. Logan Couture beat Toews on the faceoff and the puck went back to Demers at the point. His shot hit Toews' stick and bounced past Corey Crawford for San Jose's only goal on 21 shots.
The Blackhawks had a 23-11 shot advantage after two periods but were unable to convert on a number of good chances. Niemi made a good save against Steve Montador on a power play in the second period after Dan Boyle was sent off for his third minor penalty of the game. Bolland then had a chance on the rebound but missed an open net.
Niemi made up for some uncharacteristic mistakes by his defense to keep his former team off the scoreboard in the first period. Marian Hossa shot high after a giveaway by Burns in his own zone. Then with Boyle in the box for a tripping penalty, Niemi made a nice pad save to rob Toews.
Boyle then had a disastrous shift that didn't end up hurting the Sharks. First, he fell down leading to a breakaway by Bryan Bickell that Niemi stopped. Chicago got a 2-on-1 break after a turnover by Boyle, but Niemi knocked away a deflected pass from Hossa. Boyle was called for boarding at the end of that play, but the Sharks killed off the power play.
Notes: The Sharks improved to 6-1 when being outshot in games. ... Blackhawks D Brent Seabrook missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury. F Michael Frolik returned after missing two games with an injured left shoulder. ... The Sharks improved to 7-0-0 when scoring the first goal of the game.
