The Nashville Predators center Tommy Novak (82) smiling is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a second period goal. All the San Jose Sharks goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood (29) can do is look on the celebration at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Sat Oct 21, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks extended their start-of-season losing streak to five games with a 5-1 road loss to the Nashville Predators. Nashville goals came from Samuel Fagemo, Kiefer Sherwood, Luke Evangelista and Tommy Novak, who scored twice. Juuse Saros stopped 31 shots for the win. San Jose’s Tomas Hertl scored his first of the season, preventing a shutout. Mackenzie Blackwood made 29 saves in the loss.

After the game, Tomas Hertl said:

“I think we played a pretty good game, you know, and in the second like we stopped playing for one minute and it kind of changed the game. But even after that I think the 20 minutes in the second period we got pretty good looks, we should score some goals. You know, power play finally looks better. but still it’s not enough. I just don’t like the last ten minutes because we just left [Blackwood] alone.”

Nico Sturm said: “I think our inability to execute for 60 minutes is pretty apparent. We do a lot of good things but we don’t do it the whole game. That costs you in the National Hockey League.” He went on to describe the frustration the team is facing during this bad start to the season:

“Sometimes it feels like we’re taking one step forward and two steps back. It’s a little bit… obviously, it’s tough. I wish I had the magic formula. But we’ll stick together, show up for practice. That’s the biggest thing is not letting these things drive us apart as a group and everything else hockey-wise we’ll sort out.”

The first Nashville goal of the game came late in the first period. Alexandre Carrier caught the puck on the blue line and sent it back down to Gustav Nyquist on the boards. Nyquist passed it quickly across the ice to Samuel Fagemo for the shot.

Nashville’s second and third goals came in quick succession early in the second period. Roman Josi carried the puck into the Sharks zone where Nico Sturm knocked him down. The puck came loose to Kiefer Sherwood high in the zone. He passed it down and across the ice to Tommy Novak who tipped it in at 2:06.

12 seconds later, Sherwood scored another. Tyson Barrie won a race to the puck and sent it up the ice to Luke Evangelista. His quick pass back down the ice found Sherwood in the faceoff circle for the shot.

Novak scored his second on a power play at 2:47 of the third period. Nyquist caught the puck near the goal line and dropped back while Novak got to the front of the net for a close-in shot. A secondary assist went to Juuso Parssinen.

Tomas Hertl got the Sharks on the scoreboard with a goal at 10:33 of the third. Mario Ferraro sent a shot from the blue line past the net and off the boards for a bank pass to Hertl, who was closing on the net and shot it in easily. A secondary assist went to Nikolai Knyzhov.

Luke Evangelista made it 5-1 at 13:26 with a break away goal. Dante Fabbro got the assist.

Sharks Head Coach David Quinn described it as “a game of extremes. You know, I thought there were some really good things going on for a while, then, you know, when we’re bad we’re bad.” Nonetheless, the Sharks improved on previous games by staying close on the shot clock, with 32 shots to Nashville’s 34. The Sharks power play went 0/2, but they killed three of five Nashville power plays. The Sharks won 56.1% of their faceoffs.

The Sharks next game will be at 4:45 PM PT on Tuesday in Sunrise against the Florida Panthers.