San Jose Sharks forward Jacob Peterson (24) is checked by Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov during the first period in Calgary on Wed Apr 12, 2023 (Canadian Press via AP News photo)

by Matthew Harrington

Kaapo Kähkönen made 46 saves, Radim Simek picked up his second assist of the season and Noah Gregor scored his 9th goal of the season, but the San Jose Sharks fell to the Calgary Flames 3-1 Wednesday night in Calgary. Nikita Zadorov potted the hattrick for Calgary (38-27-17) in their first game since being eliminated from playoff contention and Gilroy native Dustin Wolf turned aside 23 Sharks shots to win his first NHL game.

Kähkönen set a career high in saves and shots against for the losing Sharks (22-43-16). He matched his high of 46 shots against once besides his second start of his career, the same game in which he made 44 saves to beat the Florida Panthers 4-2 as a member of the Minnesota Wild.

On Wednesday he saw 48 and stopped 46. Baffling, he was omitted in the Three Stars of the game in favor of a deserving Zadorov and Wolf and not so a debuting Matt Coronato who made his debut for Calgary and registered no points and four shots on goal and was +1.

Simek started the Sharks goal-scoring play by breaking up a play in the Sharks end then feeding a streaking Gregor with a pass through center ice. Gregor followed up his first attempt and got the rebound to Wolf’s right for his ninth goal of the year 10:26 into the first period.

Nine goals sets a new career high for Gregor who scored eight last year in 63 games. It was also Simek’s first assist since December 13th against Arizona and his third point overall in 43 games.

Zadorov tied the game after sneaking through the Sharks defense undetected. He took a pass from Andrew Mangiapane and buried it at the 13:36 mark of the second.

He added a wrist shot score 4:01 into the third for a Flames 2-1 lead, this time working through traffic. MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri assisted on the game-winning goal.

While Zadorov netted the third goal on an empty netter, credit is due for the degree of difficulty. He hit the empty net from his own defensive end with a minute left in regulation for his 14th goal of what has been a career year.

The Sharks season wraps up Thursday night against the Edmonton Oilers. The Sharks currently sit in 29th place with 60 points. The Blackhawks and Ducks have one game remaining and sit at 58 points while Columbus is clear three points of San Jose with two games left.