Photo courtesy of San Jose Sharks Twitter. Matt Benning gets ready before the game against Vancouver.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

At the SAP Center the Sharks and Canucks battled it out in a back-and-forth affair that needed overtime but in the end the Canucks won by a final of 4-3.

The opening period was a close checking period with very few stoppages and quick play on both sides of the puck.

At the 7:26 mark though Kyle Burroughs would break the silence with a one time bomb from the point that made it 1-0. The assists on the goal going to both Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller.

After the goal it continued to be a tightly played game with the shots at the end of the period only slightly favoring the Sharks at 11-7.

Heading into the second the game continued to be played very similarly with Kevin Labanc breaking up the pace by taking a tripping penalty. Though the Canucks would threaten the PK unit for San Jose came through and killed the PP off.

A little over ten minutes after the PK the Sharks would get a fortuitous goal that bounced in off the back Luke Kunin out in front off a wrist shot from the point by Matt Benning. Nick Bonino also got an assists on the goal as it bounced off of him as well.

The period would end in a tie at 1-1 with the Sharks still leading in shots at 16-13.

In the third period at the 13:00 minute mark Burroughs would take a cross-checking penalty to give the Sharks their first power play of the game.

Only five seconds into said PP San Jose struck with a one time ripper from Logan Couture that beat Thatcher Demko. Erik Karlsson and Alexander Barabonov also got assists on the goal.

For the Sharks their lead would be short lived as a little over a minute later Ilya Mikheyev scored on a one timer in the slot to tie things back up at two. Both Andrei Kuzmenko and Elias Pettersson got assists on the goal.

Looking to end the game the Canucks kept up the pressure and scored again this time Pettersson got his 11th of the season on tip out front that beat Kaapo Kahkonen. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Mikheyev got assists on the goal.

With the pressure on them San Jose would not fold as instead they pressed back and got some good looks of their own.

With a little less than seven minutes left in the game the teal-and-white converted on a look with Kunin netting his second of the night. It was another one timer beautifully set up by Karlsson with Nick Bonino assisting on the play as well.

Despite some good chances late in the third for Vancouver overtime would be necessary for this matchup.

For the Canucks it would not take long for them to end it as just 1:12 into OT Kuzmenko found himself alone on a breakaway and sniped a shot past Kahkonen. Miller and Quinn Hughes got assists on the goal.

At the end of the game the shots finished in favor of the Sharks at 35-20.

“Pretty good I mean I felt good throughout the whole game obviously just frustrating way to end this game,” Kahkonen said after the OT loss.

The Sharks next game will be against the Montreal Canadians on Tuesday at the Bell Centre at 4 p.m.