Flyers can’t solve Sharks

SAN JOSE, Calif. - For all the good things the Flyers have done in the season's first seven weeks, there remains a familiar problem.

They can't beat San Jose.

With Friday night's 6-3 loss to the Sharks at the sold-out HP Pavilion, the Flyers have failed to beat San Jose in their last 11 meetings since 2000.

They have seven losses, two overtime defeats, and two ties in that span.

Dany Heatley scored a hat trick for San Jose, which finished with a 2-0 record against the Flyers this season. The only way the teams could meet again this season would be in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Heatley scored twice after taking passes on two-on-ones with Joe Thornton. His second goal, a shorthanded tally, gave San Jose a 4-2 lead with 11 minutes, 19 seconds remaining and was Thornton's 600th career assist.

"You have to have short memories, and we have a long road trip, so it's on to the next one," Flyers goalie Ray Emery said. "Their big line got some chances and buried them."

The big line - Heatley, Thornton (four assists) and Patrick Marleau, who could make up Team Canada's premier line in the Olympics - combined for four goals and four assists.

Before Heatley and Ryane Clowe scored in the final 6:16, San Jose was clinging to a 4-3 lead.

"It's nice to get some goals, but in the end we lost the game," said Claude Giroux, who snapped a slump with the first two-goal game of his career. ". . . We were playing real well the last few weeks, and when you play against a team like that, you want to see where you're at. We played well tonight, but they got some lucky bounces and we just didn't get the win."

"Special teams," coach John Stevens said, "were the difference."

San Jose outscored the Flyers, 3-0, on special teams. The Sharks were 2 for 5 on the power play and got a shorthanded goal from Heatley.

The Flyers were 0 for 3 on the power play.

Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger, vilified here because of his Western Conference battles when he was with Anaheim, was booed every time he touched the puck - and cheered when he fell.

Pronger, who later said he had a skate problem, slipped to the ice three times in the first 21 minutes. His third slip contributed to a goal that gave San Jose a 2-1 lead.

Fifty seconds into the second period, Thornton and Heatley found themselves on a two-on-one because Pronger had slipped just inside the defensive blue line.

Heatley, on the left side, got behind Pronger and knocked home Thornton's post-to-post pass to give the Sharks their first lead of the night.

The Flyers, with a lot of help from the Sharks, tied the score, 2-2, with 8:36 left in the second period. Giroux's slot shot was turned aside by Evgeni Nabokov, and James van Riemsdyk charged the net for the rebound. The rookie missed with a swipe at the puck, and San Jose's Manny Malhotra, in his haste to clear it, accidentally knocked it into his own net. The goal, originally given to van Riemsdyk, was credited to Giroux because he was the last Flyer to touch the puck.

San Jose took a 3-2 lead when Marleau scored on a one-timer from the right circle with 4.9 seconds left in the second period. Emery had the puck lodged atop his left pad for a second before it trickled into the net.

The teams were evenly matched in a 1-1 first period in which the Sharks took advantage of a high-sticking penalty on Jeff Carter.

Emery looked sharp in the opening period, and Danny Briere scored on a rebound as the Flyers took a 1-0 lead.

Emery stopped the first 11 shots, including Heatley's point-blank rebound on the power play, before Malhotra scored a power-play goal with Carter in the penalty box. A deflected shot took a fortuitous bounce onto Malhotra's stick out front, and he tied the score at 1-1 with 4:49 left in the first period.

Malhotra has four goals this season - three against the Flyers.

Briere's eighth goal had given the Flyers a 1-0 lead. With the teams skating four-on-four, Nabokov stopped Matt Carle's shot from in front, but Briere put the rebound upstairs with 10:44 to play in the first period.

Giroux "did a great job of holding onto the puck, giving me a chance to get to the net," Briere said.

The Sharks won the teams' first meeting this season, 4-1, in a battle of backup goaltenders at the Wachovia Center last month. The Flyers were thumped despite having a 38-28 shots advantage.

Friday night, the physical game was much more competitive, but it had the same result - a three-goal Flyers loss.

Contact staff writer Sam Carchidi at 215-854-5181 or scarchidi@phillynews.com.