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Monday, Dec. 6 10:30pm ET
Nolan's pair helps Sharks tie Lightning | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Owen Nolan's played so well, he impressed his coach and the opposing team. Nolan scored twice Monday night for San Jose and Dan Cloutier made four saves in overtime for Tampa Bay as the Sharks and Lightning skated to a 3-3 tie. "He was unbelievable," Sharks coach Darryl Sutter said of Nolan. "I don't think I could pick an individual effort as good as that one. It was incredible." The two goals, on eight shots, gave Nolan 20 on the season, and moved him into a first-place tie with Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr. Vincent Damphousse had San Jose's other goal. Darcy Tucker, Mike Sillinger, and Robert Petrovicky scored for the Lightning. "I've seen a lot of players so far and right now (Nolan) is the best player in the league," Cloutier said. "He's on his game. He goes to the net hard and there's one thing on his mind. You could tell he came to play." Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead at 13:18 of the first period. Andrei Zyuzin dumped the puck into the corner where Chris Gratton picked it up and skated behind the net. Gratton passed it out to the top of the crease for Tucker, who caught San Jose defenseman Mike Ricci out of position and slapped it past Steve Shields. It was his sixth goal of the season and the 100th point of his career. The Sharks tied it less than two minutes later. Jeff Friesen carried the puck down the middle and drew the defense before passing it to a wide open Nolan, who fired it past Cloutier from the right circle. "I just tried to work hard and I got some opportunities to score," Nolan said. "We could have had a better start. We made a couple of errors and they capitalized. We battled back though." Sillinger scored his seventh goal to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead with 3:55 remaining in the opening period. Dan Kesa won the puck along the right side and tapped it forward for Sillinger, who skated to the net and beat the defense and Shields. Tampa Bay extended its lead at 2:27 of the second period. Pavel Torgajev won the puck in the corner, giving it to Stephen Guolla, who skated behind the net, then passed across the crease to Petrovicky, who slapped it past Shields. "I have to do a better job of keeping more goals out," Shields said. "When you score three goals, you should win. There are goals going in I feel I can stop." Nolan scored his second goal of the game from the top of the right circle at 14:25 of the second period. "That was a rocket," Cloutier said. "It clearly beat me. I have no excuses." Damphousse, who has 43 points in 44 career games with the Sharks, scored the game-tying goal from the top of the crease after Nolan centered the puck out of a crowd 1:20 later. Both goalies made diving saves within seconds of each other with just over six minutes to play in regulation. Shields stopped one shot, but it bounced free and Petr Svoboda had a clear shot at the net. Shields was able to sprawl backward to stop the shot. San Jose countered at the other end as Friesen found himself one-on-one with Cloutier, who managed to dive to his right to save it. "He made two or three saves that made the difference in the game," Sutter said of Cloutier. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Tampa Bay Clubhouse San Jose Clubhouse RECAPS Nashville 4 Atlanta 3
Tampa Bay 3
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