The San Jose State Spartans Hockey Club came out of the Royal Coach Tours Gold Rush Showcase with two wins and two close losses to high ranked teams.

The Spartans needed to change their momentum as they had dropped three straight before the showcase, but it would not be an easy task as they faced strong opposition from the ACHA’s West region: #1 Arizona State, #7 San Diego State, #3 Colorado State and Weber State.

ASU was a foe that had just recently dispatched San Jose State 9-3 back in Tempe, but the Spartans would not allow themselves to lose like that again. The two teams played through a well-played defensive game before the Spartans would fall to the Sun Devils 1-0.

The effort was there, but the result was still a loss; now the fourth in a row.

The next night, the Spartans would put it all together against San Diego State. Energized by Sam Cimino’s return to the line-up, SJSU had their strongest performance of the year.

“There's a very close connection between our two teams,” said Spartan GM Andy Dickerson. “A lot of our players played with a lot of their players growing up, so there's a good rivalry there.”

Led by Cimino’s 3 points (1-2-3) and a great game between the pipes by Justin Linn, the Spartans had every part of their game working well: offense, defense, goaltending, power play, and penalty kill.

The third game of the showcase featured the Colorado State Rams. The Spartans were able to tie the game at 4-4 in the third period before the Rams would eventually add 2 more. SJSU sophomore center Nicholas Matejovsky had a hand in each of the Spartans’ four goals, putting one in himself, and adding three assists to that.

“Lately, I've been putting on extra effort.” said Matejovsky after practice earlier this week, “I'm going to training everyday, trying to perfect small things in my game. And it's actually been paying off lately. I'm just happy to see some results. I hope it continues and just gets better from here.”

He would continue that hot streak into SJSU’s final game of the showcase against Weber State, netting a hat-trick to give him 7 goals in as many games for the Spartans.

The Weber State Wildcats, honestly, were not a match for SJSU. Only nine skaters were dressed for Weber, and despite the best efforts of their goaltender Jonas Torgensen, the Spartans broke it open in the third period. With a 7-0 lead, a certain Spartan third-string goaltender was able to make his debut.

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• Honda Crouture will be logan some miles on Team Alfreddson and Todd McLellan will be behind the bench. A full roster can be found here.
• Corey Perry stole the show last night with his mini-stick prop, and Patrick Kane showed up with an awesome Superman move to win the event.
• You also have to love Carey Price using the glass to watch the shooter's move during the breakaway competition.
• In case you missed it yesterday, new FTF writer SnarkSD and The Neutral had a pair of tremendous articles that looked at the underlying statistics of the San Jose Sharks. Snark SD's article used adjusted Fenwick to predict where teams will finish the season (San Jose wins the Pacific and earns the 4th most points in the West) while The Neutral compiled all of the scoring chance data he's collected throughout this season and adjusted it based on Zone Starts. Truly phenomenal stuff.
• Hard to forgot Evgeni Nabokov's performance during the 2008 All-Star game when he was still playing with the Sharks. Here's video of Nabokov robbing Ilya Kovalchuk twice in the second period of that game as Doug Wilson looks on.
• And of course the classic Owen Nolan hat trick goal in San Jose.

There's some off time for the Sharks here over the next few days, but that doesn't mean Fear The Fin takes a break. No siree.

Nope, we're working hard to bring you the Third Annual FTF Photoshop Expo! That's where we make a thread and sit back while you fill it with great ideas!

Hard, hard work for us.

Regulars will know the drill. Use Photoshop (or Gimp... it's free!) to put your favorite Sharks player, coach or whatever, anywhere you choose. Keep it PG, though... we don't want a glimpse into your inner psyche or anything.

To get you started, here are some All-Star Themed 'chops from Plank and Matt.

"Despite thoughts to the contrary, Logan Couture was pretty pumped to make it to the final two and win a car."

Seriously, can our McGinn fandom reach a higher level? We offer you this McGinnivational Poster to get over the obvious and egregious McGinn All-Star Game snub.

The San Jose State Spartans started the second semester very differently from their first. The opponents and results of the first two games were the same, but that's where the similarities end. And it certainly didn't continue on the high note that the first semester did.

Broadcaster/third-string goaltender Julian Huguet may have put it best: "I think I can sum it up with the word 'bleegghh'. That's it."

First up, before the trip to Arizona, was a familiar foe for San Jose State: the College of the Canyons Cougars. Unlike the high-scoring affairs these teams played in the first semester, it was a goalie duel as SJSU's Justin Linn and CoC's Taylor Spesak had 51 and 53 saves, respectively. Sam Cimino scored all 4 goals for the Spartans, who took the first game 4-2.

Game 2 was a penalty-filled affair with the pesky Cougars. The Spartans' Robbie Vaughan notched the game-winner on the power play with under a minute to go to make it 4-3, and held off the Cougars just long enough: one more puck passed by the Spartan's goaltender half a second after the final buzzer.

The Spartans would escape with 2 wins to start the semester, but their path would only get tougher with the 3-game road trip to Arizona to take on the Arizona State's Division 1 and 2 squads, as well as Northern Arizona D2.

I was given the opportunity to travel with the team on their trip down south. Between the plane and bus trips, team meetings and rooming with the team, I must say I was impressed and gained a whole new perspective on the hard work that these players put in to the game.

We flew down to Tempe Wednesday night as the Spartans planned to play David to ASU's Goliath the next night. Defeating any Division 1 school in the ACHA would be tough enough, but the Arizona State Sun Devils came in as the #3 ranked team in the nation.

The Spartans held their own on Thursday night at the oddly named Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe, AZ. It started with a strong, scoreless first against the Sun Devils.

A flat start to the second period for SJSU would give ASU the 3-0 lead, but the Spartans showed the heart to come back and make it 3-2 Arizona State. The Sun Devils would make it 4-2 later in the game and eventually add one more on an empty-netter.

The game was not the only thing lost that night, however. Star forward Sam Cimino was lost for the entire weekend with an injury sustained in the first period.

"It'd be a real easy cop-out to say that was a reason for our lack of success," said Head Coach Aaron Mullagh. "Obviously we miss Sam a lot, he's a large part of our offense, and we're just really happy to have him back in the lineup this week."

One can only wonder if the Spartans could have tied it up had Cimino not been injured. Regardless, the Spartans sent a message to the rest of the ACHA: They could compete with absolutely any team in the league.

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The San Jose State Spartans hockey team are getting ready to begin the second semester of play this season. They finished the first semester with a 10-7-1 record and a ranking of ninth in the ACHA Division 2 West Region. However, from the general feeling I've gotten from talking to the team, they feel like they could do much better.

They'll have the chance to improve in the second half with a schedule that includes challenging road trips to Arizona and Colorado. But they'll start this weekend with a two-game series against the College of the Canyon Cougars, a Division 3 team who are currently on a 13-game winning streak after dropping a pair of games to this SJSU squad to start the year.

I had a chance to sit down with Spartans Head Coach Aaron Mullagh after practice this week for a few quick questions. Mullagh is entering his second semester as Head Coach for the team.

Coach Mullagh, in the last game for the Spartans before the break, you had a disappointing 3-5 loss against the Division 3 Sacramento State Hornets. What went wrong for the Spartans in that game?

It was a variety of things. Obviously, we had a bit of a slow start that we didn't like, and had a tough time recovering from that. [We] came out, and the guys didn't play a full sixty minutes of hockey.

In the third period they certainly did, they played very well. Unfortunately the goaltender stepped up and played really well. I believe we had 20+ shots and he was able to stonewall the guys. It was a little bit of a lesson of 'too little, too late.'

What were your thoughts on the team for your first semester as the new head coach of this squad?

It was an interesting transition period. We're happy and fortunate to finish in the top 10 rankings every month. Which, I believe we deserved to every month. But I think we look back at it and we'd like to have finished a little bit better. But everything is sort of day-by-day and game-by-game.

The gentleman are starting to understand the process of the way to win hockey games. And it's just a matter of playing a full sixty minutes game-in, game-out. And I have no doubt the guys learned a lot of valuable lessons. Sometimes you've got to fail to succeed. They had a few failures, seven losses, and each one of those came with a valuable lesson.

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Back just in time to take advantage of the Christmas Spirit (and loose wallets), it's a new edition of the Fear The Fin online store!

But before you let classic favorites like "Bleed Teal Patty" and "Teach Me How To Dougie" catch your eye (keep your head up!), take a look at what we have in stock! Remember kids, it's an online store, so even if you've got little "T-Rexin Arms" that make it hard to reach up to the top shelf at the department store, these tees and hoodies are just a click away! It's so easy a "Wooly Mammoth" could do it!

Introducing The Big Pavelski, a shirt featuring Joe Pavelski's famous silhouette during his game five overtime winning goal against the Dallas Stars. Perfect for the jingoistic American, The Big Pavelski never stays down and always comes up swinging! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Next up is the one, the only, the triumphant meeting of internet memes and goofy headshots, the pixelated glory that is...McGnyan Cat! Although the image on the shirt may stand still, we imagine that McGnyan cat has pierced your very heart and soul and left a sparkling rainbow trail behind. Not only is it stylish, but it's as lucky as a horseshoe made of golden rabbit's feet tatooed with four leaf clovers. McGinn has five goals and three assits in the nine games since McGnyan first dashed across a computer screen. Of course, that has to be a direct result of the shirt and has nothing to do with any player improvement!

And who could forget the devastating duo of Ryane Clowe and Logan Couture? The Cloweture shirt is perfect for male siblings who always have each other's back and never let those schoolyard bullies take their milk money. Boom! Bang! Kapow!

And how about that smoooooth looking trifecta on the second line eh? If any of you juvenile males are thinking of picking up the Pickles shirt for your girlfriend as a gag gift, be our guest! Just make sure to pick up a Burns one as well, cause once she opens the package you'll want to look the part as she sends a screaming hot karate chop straight to the five hole! Yeowwww! It Burns indeed!

And who could forget the Flop on Figueroa? Well we kind of did considering that happened about eight months ago, but what the hey right? Celebrate your fandom by owning a t-shirt commemorating one of the craziest events to happen in the NHL playoffs last season and pretend The Stanchion never even happened!

Click on an image to be taken to that shirt's specific page.

But that's not all! For all you Grinches out there who are complaining about not being able to have these tees under the tree in time for Christmas morning, make the jump to pick up your very own printable stocking stuffer! It will explain to your wonderful friends and family why they'll be getting their gifts a little late this year!

It's perfect to slip into a card, put in a stocking, or use as kindling to start the fire!

Let it Clowe, let it Clowe, let it Clowe! All Hail Stalock! Merry Christmas!

[STOCKING STUFFER AFTER JUMP]

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When the San Jose Sharks acquired Brent Burns last offseason, many (including myself) thought it would bring about a renaissance on the offensive front for San Jose. Not just for the forwards, who would clearly benefit from playing with a talented puck mover such as Burns, but for the blueline as a whole as well.

The addition of Burns would, in theory, allow San Jose to do three things-- the first is reduce Dan Boyle's minutes (making him more effective with less workload), allow Marc-Edouard Vlasic to expand his offensive game (by virtue of being paired with Burns), and free up space for Jason Demers to clean house against bottom line forwards as he played on the third pairing.

For the most part things haven't worked out that way.

Boyle will enter Wednesday's game on pace for his lowest point per game total since 2003-2004, Burns has amassed only 10 points, and Demers has struggled his way towards a mere 6 points thus far this season. Marc-Edouard Vlasic is only defenseman on the team who has managed to exceed expectations offensively this season, with much of that coming during his Bobby Orr esque run in late November when he scored seven points in three games.

In other words, the Sharks blueline has continued the trend of seeing their offensive output decrease ever since Rob Blake and Christian Ehrhoff left the team in successive years during the first two years of Todd McLellan's tenure behind the bench.

What those numbers don't show you at first glance is a few things. The first is the amount of shots San Jose's blueline has been putting up this year-- they're currently on pace to log 877 shots this season, which is probably a team record for shots from the blueline. This is a good sign to see and indicates some more goals could be on their way.

The average shooting percentage for defenseman last season was 5.08%, 5.16% in 09-10, and 5.39% in 08-09. For whatever reason-- whether it be putting low percentage shots on net to generate a rebound, a lack of traffic, or just plain luck-- the Sharks blueline core hasn't had the goal scoring success one would expect to see with shot totals this high. Dan Boyle is the one who has been snakebit the hardest in this regard, as 2 goals in 92 shots indicates something might be up with San Jose's number one defenseman.

Speaking of Boyle, it turns out his early season struggles weren't just age or performance related. As Boyle told Jamie Baker on Sharks radio following Saturday's game against Edmonton, he had actually been playing with a broken foot during the start of the season.

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It's that time of the year again. When people stop going outside because hey, the Sharks game is on. As with every season, there are new fans that decide to take the Sharks out for a spin, seeing what it's like to cheer for a team that unabashedly embraces the color teal. As someone who has been born and raised on the Sharks, I gotta say, it's pretty fun. Every season, there are also fans who have watched the Sharks and know the Sharks, but they are new to the Fear the Fin community. This FAQ is for both groups; what it may lack in actual hockey terminology it makes up for in comprehensiveness with regards to slang and inside jokes/memes that populate the comments section. No longer do you have to wonder what Grier's First Law is, or why people seem to keep reminding others that Ian White doesn't play for the Sharks anymore. Enjoy!

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