Scoring Chances: Game 43 v. Calgary

Not the most inspiring effort by San Jose at even-strength, particularly against a team that's as poor on the road as Calgary, but the Sharks ended up outchancing the Flames at evens and overall, in addition to picking up two points, so there isn't a ton to complain about here, especially when you consider they accomplished all of that icing just four top-six forwards. Fortunately, the near future is riddled with winnable games (with the exception of Saturday's contest in Vancouver) because it's tough to see the Sharks thriving against Detroit or St. Louis with the forward lineup they were forced to use against Calgary due to the Ryane Clowe injury as well as Martin Havlat's continued absence.

Despite holding the lead for half the period, the Flames managed to tie the Sharks in chances in the third as the line of Mike Cammalleri, Mikael Backlund and Jarome Iginla feasted on Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Tommy Wingels during several stages of this game. Todd McLellan understandably chose to match that trio against Calgary's first line after a poor effort by Logan Couture in Chicago on Sunday when he was forced to go up against Jonathan Toews at Joel Quenneville's behest. But the dropoff from the Joes' regular winger in Patrick Marleau to Wingels was ever apparent.

Best EV Forward: Brad Winchester (+3)

Worst EV Forward: Joe Thornton (-3)

Best EV Defenseman: Jason Demers (+3), Justin Braun (+3)

Worst EV Defenseman: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (-3)

I'm having some issues with Excel so unfortunately no head-to-head chances for this one. I already talked about the top line's struggles matched power versus power with Iginla but the third line of Jamie McGinn, Michal Handzus and Torrey Mitchell were reunited after Wingels' promotion to Thornton's wing and the trio had a field day matched up against Blair Jones and Lee Stempniak up front and Calgary's third defense pairing of T.J. Brodie and Cory Sarich. While Handzus was the only one to finish as a plus by the chances, all three posted phenomenal possession numbers and of course generated the Sharks' only goal.

More stats from the game: Corsi/Fenwick, Shift Charts, H2H Ice Time, Zonestarts, Play-By-Play, Box Score