San Jose Sharks left wing William Eklund (72) skates around the corner with Utah Hockey Club’s defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (98) in the first period at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Mon Oct 28, 2024 (AP News photo)

San Jose Mounts Epic 3rd Period Comeback To End 9-Game Losing Streak

By Tom Walker

SALT LAKE CITY–Monday night’s faceoff at Delta Center in Salt Lake City featured two teams badly in need of a victory. The Utah Hockey Club came into the match having lost five of their previous six games, and the visiting San Jose Sharks had lost all nine of their contests so far this season.

The Sharks snapped their nine game losing streak with a 5-4 overtime win at the Delta Center on Monday against the Utah Hockey Club. Utah has now lost six of it’s last seven games.

Inside the arena there were a fair number of teal jerseys adorned with names like Marleau, Thornton, Pavelski, Burns, and Clowe. The fans wearing them, however, might not have recognized too many of the names on the backs of the Sharks players on the ice.

Exactly 11 minutes into the opening frame, Utah forward Dylan Guenther opened the scoring with a blistering shot past San Jose goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, assisted by captain Clayton Keller. The goal was Guenther’s sixth of the season, ending a multiple game drought for the Utah sniper.

At 16:24 of the first, Utah forward Matias Maccelli netted his first goal of the season, assisted by Ian Cole and Nick Schmaltz, extending the lead to 2-0 going into the period break.

About halfway into the second period, San Jose forward Fabian Zetterlund found the back of the net to get the Sharks onto the scoreboard and cut the deficit in half, assisted by Danil Gushchin and Henry Thrun.

Moments later, Utah regained their two-goal lead as Matias Maccelli netted his second of the game, assisted by Ian Cole and Vladislav Kolyachonok. With 24 seconds left in the period, Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev found a hole through traffic and increased Utah’s lead to 4-1 with his first goal of the season, assisted by Vladislav Kolyachonok and Logan Cooley.

For most of the 3rd period, the two squads exchanged chances as both goaltenders kept opposing offenses at bay. With five minutes remaining in regulation, headlines had already been written about San Jose’s ten game losing streak and how long the agony might continue. On the ice, however, there was time still left on the clock and the Sharks feverishly went to work closing the gap.

Fabian Zetterlund began the comeback at 15:28, narrowing Utah’s lead to 4-2 with his second goal of the night, assisted by Mikael Granlund and Jake Walman. Just 25 seconds later, Mikael Granlund cut the deficit to 4-3, assisted by Jake Walman and William Eklund.

Finally, a minute and twenty five seconds later, Tyler Toffoli tied things up with his fifth goal of the season, assisted by Jake Walman and Alex Wennberg. Altogether the three-goal surge took just one minute and fifty seconds overall, and the 3rd period came to a close with the score tied 4-4.

At 1:19 of the overtime period, Utah’s Michael Kesselring committed a hooking penalty against William Eklund, giving the Sharks a 4-on-3 advantage. Just seven seconds later, Alex Wennberg capitalized on the power play, stunning the Utah crowd and giving San Jose its first victory of the season while Utah has now lost six of their past seven contests.

Utah Hockey Club head coach André Tourigny was asked how to explain the last five minutes of the game. “I can’t. Let’s give them credit, they put pucks in the net, they got their bones. The way we played in the third period, it’s tough to explain. We stopped putting pressure. We let them play with the puck. We let them make plays. We stopped defending like we can do, and the puck ended up in the back of our net.”

When asked whether the breakdown was mental or physical, Tourigny responded, ”No, it’s mental. It’s 100% mental. It started with a turnover in the neutral zone, then they got two scoring chances out of it, and then the faceoff in our zone, they pulled their goalie, they scored off that play, and it’s a snowball effect from there.” So how does Utah HC move on? ”I think first before moving on, I think we need to, we need to unpack that. That’s not who we are. That’s not who we want to be. It’s [not how we want to play] in front of our fans. Give credit to San Jose, but like I said, that’s not who we want to be. You have that kind of a lead, it’s not the way we want to play, it’s not who we want to be.”

In the visitors’ locker room, San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky described his his first NHL win. “Relief, I think, was the biggest thing. Look, I didn’t really do much. The players–credit to them. They stuck with it. There were times we did some really, really good things and just didn’t get rewarded for it. But we stuck with it. We just kept playing. That’s got to be our mindset; we’re never going to give up.”

Speaking of Fabian Zetterlund’s impact in the game, Warsofsky commented, “He does that a lot of the time; he’s vocal on the bench, he’s keeping our guys engaged, he works extremely hard. For him to get rewarded with that goal was nice. That’s how he needs to play every single night. I think he had one of his best games tonight.”

Continuing to comment about Zetterlund’s productivity, Warsofsky added, “He hasn’t complained once. Just puts his head down and goes to work. That’s what we need. He’s done some really good things. I think there’s a whole other level he can get to. And we’re going to keep pushing him. We’re challenging him to get there. He’s been good for us.”

San Jose’s head coach spoke of the team having its faith rewarded. “That’s what we said after the second period: whoever plays the simplest is going to have the most success in the third period. I can’t tell you if we’re going to win or lose the game, but I think we’ll have the most success. I think we kept our game extremely simple, North-South, hard puck plays, we got pucks to the net. We just stuck with it. Credit to the guys.”

Does winning feel good? “(There’s) relief and belief. We got a group of guys (in the locker room) that are going to believe a lot more now. That’s what this is all about. When you go into sporting events, you’ve got to believe that you can win a hockey game. No matter what the situation is, you can believe. And…it’s not just a feeling. It’s in your mind, it’s in your heart, it’s in your soul…We can get that going here.”

Sharks forward Alexander Wennberg also spoke with media after the game. “Obviously, you can’t go too long without winning. It’s been tough for sure. But at the end of the day, this is what we’ve been talking about–show character. We were down 4-1 and found a way to win the game. It was a really great effort. At the end of the day, you don’t say how you win, you’ve just got to win the game. Obviously right now, it’s a good feeling. Amazing. But here’s the thing: there’s a game tomorrow as well. Obviously, we’re going to enjoy this. It’s a lot of good things. But we’re back at it again tomorrow. For the (win-loss) record, you’ve got to win games. But for us, there’s a lot of good things. Obviously, we’re shooting a lot more pucks, creating chances and (won) the game. But there’s a lot of good things, goaltending and everything. A lot of good things to build on. This is what we’ve been talking about. We just have to stay consistent and do that every game.”

Tyler Toffoli, who scored the game-tying goal, commented, “I think that we played a really good game overall. I think we had really good opportunities. Just a couple unfortunate bounces and we were down. I don’t think we needed to, technically, score those goals and the end of the game with how we played. I think we just have to keep building off it. Obviously, it feels great. It’s one of those things that we talk about, even when we weren’t winning games, to be consistent with our game. We play tomorrow.” With regard to his goal, Toffoli added, “Like the other ones, just getting shots through. We have plays drawn up and spots to be. That’s where I was supposed to be and (the puck) came right to me.”

Fabian Zetterlund was asked when he started to believe in the comeback. “Probably after I scored my second goal. We saw a chance. I don’t know how much time was left…We saw an opportunity and we just believed. We went out there, stuck to our plan and had fun. It went real well.”

The Sharks hope to build upon Monday night’s win as they return home to face the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

Utah will attempt to get back on track with a home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.