Photo courtesy of San Jose Sharks. Mario Ferraro getting warmed up against the Toronto Maple Leafs (taken on January 6th, 2023). 

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- On a rainy Saturday evening the San Jose Sharks (9-28-3) and Toronto Maple Leafs (20-10-7) took to the ice for the first of back-to-back home at home matchups between the two teams. The Leafs won their third game in row defeating the Sharks 4-1 at SAP Center. It was San Jose’s 11th consecutive loss.

A familiar face was in between the pipes for Toronto as former Sharks goaltender Martin Jones got the start. Who surprisingly heading into this one has been playing stellar hockey with 10 wins and a 2.20 GAA and .930 SV%.

Getting his second start in a row was Mackenzie Blackwood who played great in his last start a loss against Winnipeg making 28 saves.

The first period started out slow but quickly fell into Toronto’s control which was helped by a five-on-three after Thomas Hertl and Mikael Grandlund were both called for penalties. The Maple Leafs power play made quick work of the Sharks penalty killing unit as Mitchell Marner scored his 15th goal of the season making it 1-0.

Realistically though the score could’ve been much worse as the Maple Leafs hit the post three times and Blackwood had to make some stellar saves. This being especially highlighted by the fact that at the end of the first the shots favored Toronto 18-3.

The middle frame got off to a pretty sleepy start as the Maple Leafs looked to be playing on cruise control. On the other side of the rink the Sharks through the first ten minutes only managed to add two more shots to their total. 

It continued to be an unremarkable period until in the dying moments when with less than a minute left Calle Jarnkrok spun around in the slot and fired one home. The goal was Jarnkrok’s 10th goal of the season and got a decent response from the large amount of Leafs fans in attendance. 

Team Teal started the third with a little more jump as Jones had to make a couple of solid saves. 

The true dagger came when William Nylander rushed down the right wing and sniped one past Blackwood making it 3-0. The goal caused some “Go Leafs go” chants to rain down from the crowd that was becoming increasingly more filled with Toronto fans. 

There was a glimmer of hope as Fabian Zetterlund made a beautiful pass that he hooked over to a wide open Granlund who tapped it home. The goal brought some life back into the stadium and was his fifth of the campaign. 

Not long after that Nylander truly iced the game as he snuck home his own rebound after a great save by Blackwood making it 4-1. 

With the loss the Sharks record now stands at 9-28-3 while the Leafs improve to 20-10-7. 

The shots in this one ended at 34-24 in favor of the Maple Leafs with Blackwood making 29 saves while Jones made 23. 

The three stars of the game: 1st: William Nylander 2nd: Mikael Granlund 3rd: Auston Matthews 

With the three game home stand now behind them the Sharks will go on a five game roundtrip. Starting with these same Leafs as they’ll do battle on Tuesday at 4 p.m.