By Mary Walsh
ST LOUIS– The San Jose Sharks defeated the St. Louis Blues Thursday, 3-2 in overtime. Tyler Toffoli, Collin Graf and Darnell Nurse scored for the Sharks. Nurse’s overtime winner was also his first goal as a Shark. Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves for the win. Connor McMichael and Dillon Dube scored for the Blues. Joel Hofer made 24 saves in the loss. This was the second game in a row that the Sharks played without their captain Macklin Celebrini. He again skated with the team before the game but was not deemed ready to play.
Connor McMichael scored the lone first period goal at 3:52, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead. McMichael carried the puck into the zone before passing it back to Mason McTavish. McTavish sent the puck back to the net, where McMichael tipped it in. Assists went to McTavish and Jonatan Berggren.
At the end of the first, the shots were 11-3 St. Louis. Each team took one penalty. The Sharks had one shot on their power play and the Blues had none.
Tyler Toffoli scored the only second period goal, tying the game at 8:48. From the right side of the net, Toffoli shot his own rebound into the net. Assists went to Michael Misa and Jacob Trouba.
The middle frame was littered with penalties, with three to the Blues and one to the Sharks. The Sharks only managed two shots over those three power plays. The Blues took two shots in their one power play and three short-handed shots. The second period shot count was 12-12. The goaltenders were busy.
The Sharks started the third period with almost two minutes of power play time. Instead of taking the lead, they gave up a short-handed goal to Dillon Dube at 1:39.
It took the Sharks a few minutes to recover from that. Collin Graf tied the game at 6:05 with a snap shot from the slot, off a pass from Sam Dickinson. An assist also went to Tyler Toffoli.
The third period shots reflected a strong push from the Sharks, 11-3 San Jose.
Darnell Nurse ended the game in the Sharks’ favor with the only shot of overtime, 1:03 in. Ivar Stenberg and Alexander Wennberg got the assists.
The Sharks next play on Saturday at 1:00 PM PT against the Edmonton Oilers in San Jose.
