San Jose Sharks roster celebrates their win over Toronto Maple Leafs at SAP Center in San Jose on Thu Mar 27, 2025 (San Jose Sharks Media)

By: Fernando Abarca

SAN JOSE–After a little break from last Saturday’s game, The Sharks came in full energy to get a much needed win.

We all love it when our Canadian neighbors make a stop at the Tank. Thursday night, the San Jose Sharks played host one of the powerhouses in hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs are currently in first place in the Atlantic Division with almost a sealed ticket to the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Sharks surprised SAP Center with an upset over the Maple Leafs in a narrow 6-5 win in a shootout.

The game started with the Sharks making a statement that this game was going to be well-fought, and indeed, the Sharks communicated that. Tyler Toffoli put the Sharks up by one seven minutes into the first period to silence a the Go-Leafs-Go noise.

14 minutes in, and the Leafs responded with a goal by William Nylander who made it 41 goals in the season so far to tie things up. The Sharks bounced back with another goal by Collin Graf to finish the period 2-1.

Second period marked more intensity by both teams with penalties and goals. Alexander Wennberg opened up the scoring in the second, putting 3-1 over the Leafs.

Auston Matthews, a Bay Area native, made his presence felt, scoring the second goal for the Leafs.

Luck was not in favor of the Leafs as a deflected puck from a shot by William Eklund put the Sharks up again. The physicality of both teams was tested throughout the period as the Penalties took place. Max Domi was ejected due to misconduct, and Lucas Carlsson for tripping over John Tavares. Also, Zach Ostapchuk  got a cross-checking misconduct.

Scott Laughton closed out the scoring of the second period with San Jose at 4 goals over 3 for Toronto.

During the third period, the noises of Go-Leafs-Go turned into a Let’s Go Sharks in a house that predominantly looked like a sea of blue. Toffoli found his way to put the puck into the net to seal the 5th goal of the night for the Sharks.

At the final minute, Toronto refused to give up after several attempts by the Sharks to close out the game in regulation.

Tavares and Nylander gave Toronto life, scoring two goals 40 seconds apart to tie the score. This is the third time this has happened that both teams do not end it in regulation..

In overtime, both teams kept a clean sheet, but it was worth highlighting the performance of Will Smith and Maklin Celebrini and veteran Toffoli for carrying the weight of the team on their shoulders, in a match where the home team seemed doomed to lose.

In the shootout, Smith and Celebrini led to a victory in home-ice.

The Sharks are back at the tank this Saturday against the New York Rangers.