San Jose Sharks-Dallas Stars: If Only We Could Always Play the Pacific

The Stars have played better since shelving Sean Avery, and the Sharks have been vulnerable. On the road, coming off an overtime loss, this looked like a tough game to win. Not if Evgeni Nabokov had anything to say about it. He turned away 28 of 29 shots, with the only one he let in being a fluke: Alexei Semenov, playing for Christian Ehrhoff (healthy scratch) reached up to catch a shot and deflected it past his teammate and fellow-countryman with 5:03 to play. Drew Remenda and Randy Hahn talked about the potential for Semenov to be the goat in what was suddenly a one-goal game. I have derided Semenov as hard as anyone, but there is no way a bad break when he was doing his job makes him a goat, no matter how things turn out. But just to make sure, he laid out to block a shot in the final minute that helped not only preserve the win, but spring the Sharks' first empty-net goal of the season; Pavelski followed with another block and then got the puck to Ryan Clowe all alone in the offensive zone. ... (link)