nhl.com photo: San Jose Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell who stopped 24 shots against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at SAP Center in San Jose good enough for a shutout in pre season game number one Tuesday night

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE–Summer is over and with fall right around the corner, the San Jose Sharks were back out on the ice at SAP Center in their first pre-season game of the 2017-18 campaign as they skated circles around the Anaheim Ducks for a 5-0 victory.

Pre-season games are a chance for the younger prospects to try to make a name for themselves enough to earn a coveted spot on the 23 man roster. For veterans like captain Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton, they usually get the night off. Forwards Logan Couture and Mikkel Boedker and defensemen Marc Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun were the only veteran Sharks in head coach Peter DeBoer’s lineup in front of an announced crowd of 15,032.

The majority of the lineup consisted of players who played on the Sharks’ minor league team, the San Jose Barracuda including forwards Danny O’Regan, Barclay Goodrow and Ryan Carpenter. Back up goalie Aaron Dell started in goal for the Sharks as he looked to fine tune his game for the upcoming season. Dell played a solid game as he stopped all 24 shots he faced to preserve the shutout, including a point blank shot by Anaheim’s Antoine Morand with 12 minutes left to go in the third period.

Sharks forward Filip Sandberg drew first blood on a breakaway goal with ten seconds left in the first period thanks to a heads up play by defenseman Tim Heed. Sandberg, who signed with the Sharks back in May after playing last year in the Swedish Hockey League, showed off his speed after receiving a nifty pass from Heed that sprung him down the middle skating past two Duck defenders before beating Ducks goalie Reto Berra to the lower right corner of the goal. “He’s a hard working kid”, head coach Peter DeBoer said of Sandberg. “He helps along the boards, he has some speed. We’re trying to infuse some speed in our lineup.” O’Regan scored the Sharks second goal of the game less than two minutes into the second period.

After a clean face off win in the neutral zone, defenseman Nick Desimone set up O’Regan in the slot and he planted the shot top shelf past Berra. Defenseman Jacob Middleton also was credited with an assist on the goal. The Sharks cashed in on the power play as Boedker made the Ducks pay after Anaheim’s John Manson went into the sin bin for slashing with his power play goal seven minutes left in the second period for a 3-0 lead. Heed received his second assist of the game.

Kevin Lebanc cleaned up a rebound for the Sharks fourth goal of the game after a mad scramble in front of the net after a Goodrow shot was initially saved by Berra. The goal came just as the penalty of Anaheim’s Kevin Roy for interference (he received 20 seconds after Boedker’s goal) had just expired.

The Sharks kept pouring it on as fourth liner Brandon Bollig crashed the net and tipped home a rebound off a Rudolf Balcers shot to round out the scoring for the Sharks. Bollig and Ducks forward Jared Boll exchanged some fisticuffs midway through the third period after Bollig took exception to Boll’s hit along the boards on Sharks forward Sasha Chmelevski. Bollig received an extra minor for roughing.

NEXT UP: The Sharks take on the NHL’s newest member, the expansion Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday at SAP Center at 7:30pm.

NOTES: The Sharks went 1-4 on the power play while the Ducks were 0-4.