The Tank was, as I predicted, decidedly quieter than game 7, but that’s to be expected.  And it didn’t help that we played the Stars, a teams who plays a smothering 1-4 scheme that produces about a thousand neutral ice turnovers.  Dallas got two shots in the first, and one was a 85-footer by Steve Ott with 2 seconds left.  Not exactly a offensive fireworks show.

Good news is, even after the Sharks fell behind, they did not panic, and kept the pressure up.  I get extraordinarily frustrated and annoyed when the Sharks play prevent defense; I can only imagine how Stars fans felt in the 3rd.  Dallas didn’t even try to get any offense going- they just clamped down and chipped pucks out until the Sharks finally scored.  They registered a shot at 1:55, 9:13, and 16:18.  Not a lot of offense.  And the Sharks just wore them out.  I felt at that time it was more or less inevitable the Sharks would score, and they did.  I knew that OT was a crapshoot, and the Sharks just came up short.

Is is just me, or did Nabby not look good?  I thought the first goal was sort of weak- a shot from the point along the ice, and it’s the goalie’s job to cover the bottom of the net.  The puck didn’t sneak in by the post- it just went in.  The fact that he gave up 2 goals on seven shots is a tad misleading, but Nabby needs to make those saves the way Turco did in the first.

Game 2 will be another battle, but I’m not nearly as scared as I was against Calgary, which had an obvious matchup advantage in certain areas.  Maybe that’s why Dallas is so dangerous- they lull you to sleep and then take a picture of themselves teabagging you with a Sharpie-drawn mustache.