Sharks Show Resilience Despite Tough Start Against Flyers

It hasn't been a normal year so far for the San Jose Sharks. Each of the last four seasons they have finished the year with at least 105 points and 49 wins. This year, the Sharks aren't on pace for one of their "usual" finishes, but with 30 points in 26 games are on pace for 94 points. To add to that, the Western Conference is as tight as can be with only nine points separating the second-place team from the worst. Wednesday night, the Sharks showed why their regular-season experience from the last few years still makes them a very tough team to beat in the Western Conference.

Traveling cross-country in the middle of December against a very tough Philadelphia Flyers team, this was the easiest game in the book in which to roll over or take a night off. This is the time in the season that separates the tough teams from the soft ones and the Sharks were in the middle of an East Coast road trip. Make no mistake, the Sharks made a lot of noise in the hockey world tonight in a nationally televised game on Versus -- and not just because of a disallowed Flyers goal.

Down 4-1 early in the third period with a trip to Buffalo later that night, it would have been easy for the Sharks to give up. You could argue the deficit should have only been 4-2, as the Sharks had a second-period goal disallowed for "a distinct kicking motion" that was a very tough call that could have gone either way. Packing it in and starting to think about a struggling Sabres team on Thursday night seems like an option a lot of teams or players might have taken.

That's exactly the opposite of what the Sharks did in Philadelphia.

Slightly over a minute from when the Flyers extended the lead to three, Jason Demers scored his first of the year to cut the lead to two. The Sharks would start buzzing as if -- yes I'm going to go there -- they smelled blood in the water. Another minute expired and Jeff Carter took a cross-checking penalty to put the Sharks up a man. They wouldn't score on that power play, but soon after Logan Couture put the Sharks within one with his fifth goal in four games. Another Flyers veteran would then take a key penalty in the third period. This time, Daniel Briere went off for tripping (he would later take a double minor for high sticking as well) and Joe Pavelski tied the game up off a quick face off win.

The Sharks were rolling, scoring three in a row to send the game to overtime. They were almost a tenth of a second away from losing the game at the end of overtime, though. Mike Richards fired a shot towards the Sharks' net with only a few seconds remaining on the clock. His shot beat Antero Niittymaki but replay showed that the puck was on the goal line when time expired. Another .1 seconds on the scoreboard and Philadelphia would have taken home two points. The momentum shifted after that moment and Sharks would score two unanswered goals in the shutout to win.