William Eklund center (72) center goes for a skating lap of congratulations from teammates. Eklund scored a goal against the Anaheim Ducks at SAP Center on Tue Sep 26, 2023 (Hockey Shots photo)

Tuesday, September 26th, 2023

By Troy Ewers

San Jose, CA – A preseason game between San Jose Sharks (1-1) and Anaheim Ducks (1-1) and the Sharks are coming off a victory over the Kings and now look to keep developing this roster as they approach the season opener against the defending champion Golden Knights. The Ducks won at SAP Center in San Jose with a two goal 4-2 win. Both teams are at .500 in exhibition play at 1-1.

The Ducks and Sharks started off the first period with a back and forth pace, but then the Ducks got on the board first with a wrist shot past Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood by Anaheim’s Brett Leason (assisted by Sam Carrick and Jacob Perreault), 1-0 Ducks.

Anaheim quickly followed up that goal with another one, but this one off a wrist shot right off the blue line and this goal was scored by defenseman Olen Zellweger (assisted by Ilya Lyubushkin and Sam Carrick). 2-0 Ducks and the avalanche wouldn’t stop for Anaheim.

A goal for Andrew Agozzino assisted by Pavol Regenda and Olen Zellweger to put the Ducks up 3-0 and at this point the game still had seven minutes on the clock to go. When the first period came to an end, the biggest takeaway for the Sharks was that the offense created opportunities, especially the Eklund/Strum/Halttunen line, but the defense letting the Ducks capitalize on opportunities they created left the offense playing from behind and playing from behind early. 

The second period started with more intensity for the Sharks and more shots in less time. San Jose had half the shots they did in the first period and they did it before the period was halfway over. Playing a 4 on 3 powerplay William Eklund scored the first goal for the Sharks showing why he is one of the best young guys in the San Jose organization.

The goal was assisted by Kevin Lebanc and Shakir Mukhamadullin who has been showing a great display of passing in the first two periods. 3-1 being the score at this point in the second period. Penalties for Anaheim became a factor in the second period as they tallied up three within two minutes of each other and this gave San Jose some momentum to hopefully generate more offense.

Blackwood’s second period was a shutout, but a key point of this second period shoutout was the Sharks defense keeping Anaheim away from rebounding the missed shots. San Jose in both periods have accumulated six shots a period and compared to the Ducks’ 18 shots on goal, the Sharks seem to be still figuring out the system that they want to run, but it’s all coming together. 

The final period started with the Sharks attacking and the feeling in the arena was that there would be another goal for San Jose and almost four minutes into the third, that feeling was justified as Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored on a breakaway with an assist from Nico Sturm and now it was 3-2 with a lot of game still left.

The gap on shots was closing between San Jose and Anaheim and so was the score. The chances the Sharks were getting were better, but they weren’t resulting in on goal shots which results in goals. With six minutes left in the third, the Sharks showed that they do well screening the net, but when no shots are actually close to the net, then it’s just bodies in the way.

The biggest penalty for the Sharks came in this last period by Vlasic (4 minute minor) with two minutes and 20 seconds left, so San Jose was on a penalty kill to end the game. Anaheim gets a penalty with a minute left making it a 4 on 4 as the Sharks approach the close of the game and San Jose also pulled Blackwood to make it a 5 on 4 in the last minute. After missing two shots, the Ducks recover the puck in open ice with an empty net and score one last goal. 4-2 Ducks. 

The game comes to an end, both clubs will see each other Wednesday night in Anaheim for another preseason game. Face off 7:00pm PT at the Honda Center in Anaheim.