Photo credit: @SiriusXMNHL

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — No, the regular season hasn’t started yet, but the San Jose Sharks opened up the preseason at SAP Center versus the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.

For the Sharks, the recent acquisition of Ottawa Senators star defenseman Erik Karlsson might signal the dawn of a new era in San Jose. The Sharks welcomed Karlsson to San Jose with a full page color ad in Monday’s edition of The Mercury News. The Sharks reportedly will offer Karlsson an eight-year contract extension.

Karlsson revealed that he never wanted to leave Ottawa after a season full of controversy, but I’m almost certain that he’ll get comfortable with California now that he’s expected to practice with the Sharks on Wednesday.

In other news, Mike Hoffman’s fiancee, Monika Caryk, said she won’t sue Karlsson’s wife, Melinda Currey, over allegations of cyberbullying.

For the Ducks, there has been a lot of debating over questions surrounding their training camp. The Ducks’ recent trades may or may not change the balance of power in the Pacific Division, but I’ll wait for the regular season to start before commenting on that.

Anyhow, let’s get to the Sharks vs. Ducks preseason game.

Despite an action-packed first period, the game was in a scoreless tie. Shots were 14-6 in favor of San Jose.

Just moments after Gibson’s penalty expired, Brenden Dillon was called for tripping at the 16:30 mark of the second period. And, to make things worse, Anton Rodin gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead with his first power play goal of the preseason at the 15:31 mark of the second period. Assists were handed to Corey Tropp and Brandon Montour.

But the Sharks bounced back nicely. Rourke Chartier scored the game-tying goal at the 12:23 mark of the second period. A lone assist was handed to Ivan Chekhovich.

The Ducks pulled Jared Coreau in favor of Kevin Boyle with 8:06 left in the second period. However, the Ducks’ decision didn’t work in their favor.

The Sharks took a 2-1 lead with 4:35 left in the second period. Chekhovich scored his first goal of the preseason. A lone assist was handed to Barclay Goodrow.

The Sharks brought a 2-1 lead to the locker room following a gutsy second period. Shots were 29-15 in favor of San Jose.

The Sharks were feisty late in the third period. Barclay Goodrow tallied a goal–his first to extend the Sharks’ lead to 3-1 with 1:49 left in regulation. Assists were handed to Tim Heed and Radim Simek. Shortly after, Chekhovich scored his second goal of the game (and preseason) to expand the Sharks’ lead to 4-1. Assists were handed to Goodrow and Dylan Gambrell.

The Sharks defeated the Ducks 4-1 in their first preseason game of 2018.

Notes
Tonight’s attendance was 13,926.

Sharks’ roster 
Forwards: Dylan Gambrell, Marcus Sorensen, Barclay Goodrow, Joonas Donskoi, Antti Suomela, Vincent Praplan, Tomas Hertl, Lukas Radio, Sasha Chmelevski, Rourke Chartier, Kevin Labanc, Ivan Chekhovich and Maxim Letunov.

Defensemen: Brenden Dillon, Ryan Merkley, Joakim Ryan, Radim Simek, Nick DeSimone, Tim Heed and Jeremy Roy.

Goalies: Antoine Bibeau and Zachary Emond.

Up Next
The Sharks head to Anaheim to take on the Ducks in a preseason rematch on Thursday, September 20 at 7:00 pm PDT.