San Jose Sharks Ivar Stenberg (41) celebrates scoring his game winning goal against the New York Islanders during the shootout at SAP Center in San Jose on Mon Nov 9, 2026 (AP News photo)
By Lincoln Juarez
SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Sharks snapped a five-game losing streak on the back of their goaltender and their consistent offensive opportunities. The Sharks out-shot the New York Islanders in all three regulation periods (12-7, 10-9, 14-13) and tied them with three shots in overtime. New York lost their fourth straight Monday night to start their three-game, California road trip. Ilya Sorokin (6-4-1) stopped 37 of 39 shots and all but one shot through eight rounds of the shootout that wound up the difference.
After about three weeks on the injured reserve Alex Wennberg made his much anticipated return to the Sharks lineup, centering the second line with Mason Marchment and Kiefer Sherwood. Wennberg had just three assists in nine games before an upper-body injury shelved him for 10 games in which the Sharks went 3-7-0. In his return, Wennberg was held scoreless but picked up 23:03 of ice-time including minutes on both special teams units.
The Sharks were 2-6 through their last 10 games when the opponent scored first, hoping to turn that tide with Yaroslav Askarov (4-8-0) in net with an .885 save percentage. He was beat by Ben Hutton to give New York a 1-0 lead just over six minutes into the action. Hutton, who most recently spent five seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights joined the Islanders on a one-year contract Thursday evening, potting his first goal in just his second game with the team.
Team teal had an answer ten and a half minutes later when Ivar Stenberg scored his sixth goal of the season to tie the score, his second in as many games. Stenberg had been bouncing around the San Jose lineup and found himself on the third line with Ty Dellandrea and Tyler Toffoli who both picked up points with assists on the goal. It was the first of Toffoli’s two points on the night, including his fifth goal of the season to tie the game at two in the second period.
Brother of former Shark William Eklund, Victor Eklund, who went 16th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft scored the Islanders second goal at 2:11 of the second period on the powerplay. New York went 1-for-4 on the man-advantage against the Sharks 20th ranked penalty-kill (76.4%), while the Islanders were able to kill all four powerplay opportunities the Sharks had.
The real story of Monday night was Yaroslav Askarov stopping 30 of 32 shots and making a couple of jaw-dropping saves late in the third period and in overtime to keep the game tied. The 24 year-old proceeded to stop all eight shots he faced in the shootout giving 19 year-old Ivar Stenberg the chance for a shootout winner. Stenberg buried his round eight attempt and met Askarov at center ice in the middle of a mob of teal in celebration of the Sharks’ 3-2 shootout win.
The Sharks welcome the 6-10-2 Pittsburgh Penguins to SAP Center Wednesday night, looking to win two in a row for the third time this season when the puck drops at 7:00pm.
