Photo courtesy of San Jose Sharks.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- The Sharks played their second of a three game home stand against an Eastern Conference foe in the New York Islanders.

Before talking about the game there was some big moves made by the Sharks before this game began.

The first and most obvious being the Anthony Duclair trade as he was shipped off to Tampa Bay along with a seventh in exchange for a third rounder and defenseman Jack Thompson.

Before the deal was done Thomas Bordeleau was also called up and played his first NHL game since being sent down on 10/29. He’d play alongside Mikael Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund on the first line.

Now on to the starting lineup as Magnus Chrona was getting the start in between the pipes for San Jose. Chrona is coming off of an outstanding performance against the Dallas Stars on March 2nd when he made 36 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss.

On the other side was Ilya Sorokin who heading into this one had a 21-13-11 record with a 3.03 GAA and .910 SV%.

This game did have some historical importance to it as this was the 25,000th regular season game the Sharks have played all time.

The Sharks got off to a rough start in this one as less than twenty seconds in Noah Dobson scored on a flukey bounce out front. The goal which was Dobson’s eighth of the season and was assisted by Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Anders Lee.

The terrible start did not seem to deter the Sharks too much as not long after Luke Kunin got a breakaway but rang one off the crossbar.

There wouldn’t be another goal until late in the period when Alexander Romanov absolutely tee’d into a pass from Bo Horvat blasting one past Chrona and making it 2-0.

In the middle frame the first power play of the game was doled out to the Sharks as Horvat took a hooking penalty. On the power play William Eklund threw the puck on goal and it deflected in off of who else but Bordeleau as he scored his second of the season.

After the goal both teams played a relatively normal chunk of hockey as the Sharks looked to tie the game.

Through the quietness though a three-goal outburst came out of nowhere in less than a minute. It started off with Horvat getting his revenge as he walked right out to the slot and ripped one past Chrona making it 3-1. Mike Hoffman then tucked home a pass from Givani Smith off the rush making it a one goal game once again. Finally Kyle MacLean corralled a rebound in front of the Sharks goal and banked it in off of Chrona getting their lead right back.

The Islanders did not take their foot off the gas as Matthew Barzal scored on a terrible turnover by Henry Thrun as he attempted to clear the puck out of the zone.

Then the wheels really fell off as Sebastian Aho scored off a beautiful cross-ice feed from Horvat making it 6-2.

The Islanders only continued to put the game away in the final frame as Anders Lee scored on a double-minor penalty taken by Filip Zadina.

That goal ended up being the last one of the game as the Sharks would lose 7-2.

The shots in this one favored the Islanders 33-25 while the Sharks went 1/1 on the power play and New York 1/2.

The three stars of the game were: 1st: Bo Horvat 2nd: Brock Nelson 3rd: Noah Dobson

San Jose will look to rebound in the final game of this home stand when they take on one of the bottom-feeders in the East the Ottawa Senators. That game will be on Saturday at an earlier start time of 4 p.m.