Lightning Scorch Sharks 8-1, Score Five in First period

Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg (78) knocks the puck away from San Jose Sharks Ty Dellandrea (53) in first period action at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay on Thu Dec 5, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks were defeated 8-1 by the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. Cam Atkinson, Conor Geekie, Brandon Hagel, Jake Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli, Nick Perbix, and Nick Paul scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the win. Alexander Wennberg scored for San Jose. Vitek Vanecek made 7 saves in the first period. Mackenzie Blackwood made 20 saves in the second and third periods.

The Sharks gave up a stunning five goals in the first period. The Lightning outshot the Sharks in the period, but not by an enormous margin (12-9). “Not a great start. I don’t know, we didn’t play to our identity tonight at all. We kind of took our foot off the gas on a lot of little things,” said Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro. Of the team’s defensive woes, Ferraro said “I feel like most of it was the chances we gave up were sort of grade A, some shots from the point. So it has a lot to do with our box-outs and then when we recover the puck to be able to get the puck out. “

Sharks Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky described the game as a reality check: “When you don’t skate, and you don’t compete against really good hockey teams or any team in the National Hockey League, this is what’s going to happen.”

Cam Atkinson tipped in a shot from Conor Geekie 1:26 into the game. Geekie took a pass from Atkinson at the Sharks blue line, then carried the puck in and scored on the blocker side at 7:29. Victor Hedman also got an assist on that goal. That second goal triggered a flurry of three goals in less than 90 seconds.

Brandon Hagel scored at 8:32. Shortly after an offensive zone faceoff, Hagel caught a pass from Jake Guentzel on the blue line. He skated in front of the goal and then backhanded the puck in. Ryan McDonagh got a secondary assist.

Brandon Hagel scored again just 23 seconds later. This time he carried the puck in from the blue line, skated across in front of the goal to the other side before backhanding the puck in. Erik Cernak got an assist.

Jake Guentzel made it 5-0 with a power play goal at 17:45 of the first period. Guentzel tipped in a shot from Victor Hedman with Brayden Point picking up an assist as well.

The Sharks changed goaltenders after the first period, putting Blackwood in net.

Anthony Cirelli made it 6-0 at 4:16 of the second period. He tipped a shot from Ryan McDonagh and Brayden Point picked up another assist.

Nick Perbix made it 7-0 at 18:32. Brayden Point pass the puck up out of the faceoff circle to Perbix high in the slot. Perbix scored with a wrist shot. Point and Emil Lilleberg got the assists.

Alexander Wennberg scored the only Sharks goal 14 seconds into the third period. Fabian Zetterlund carried the puck into the zone, then found Wennberg with a pass in the faceoff circle. Wennberg carried it across the slot and scored with a wrist shot. Assists went to Zetterlund and Jan Rutta.

Nick Paul made it 8-1 at 6:01 of the third. Paul caught a cross-ice pass from Brayden Point, then skated in to score with a backhand shot. Point and J..J. Moser got the assists.

The Sharks next play on Saturday in Sunrise against the Panthers at 3:00 PM PT.

Sharks Shut Out 6-0 by Lightning; San Jose remains winless at 0-6-1

The San Jose Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen (36) replaces Sharks starting goalie MacKenzie Blackwood in the second period at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay on Thu Oct 26, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks, still winless after seven games, fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-0 in Thursday. Brayden Point, Michael Eyssimont, Steven Stamkos, Brandon Hagel, Nicholas Paul and Luke Glendenning scored for the Lightning. Jonas Johansson made 31 saves for the shutout win, his second shutout in a row. Mackenzie Blackwood made 16 saves on 21 shots before Kaapo Kahkonen replaced him in the net. Kahkonen made 9 saves on 10 shots.

Though not their first loss of the season, this was the first time the Sharks were shut out. After the game, Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said: “Not good, not good at all. Weren’t hard enough to play against, too much time and space for them. It wasn’t a good game for us. No, we’re not happy about that one, there’s nothing positive to take out of that.”

When asked what the team needs to do to improve offensively, Ferraro said: “I think we just as a team have to stop worrying about that.” He later elaborated on that:

“I think maybe we’re thinking too much on what we got to do offensively and how to create and I think just narrowing it down to the little things, our compete and being good teammates and working hard every night. Until we’re consistent with that, we can’t worry about scoring.”

Brayden Point scored the first of the game at 1:41 of the first. Mikhail Sergachev made a pass from the left side of the blue line down tot the right circle and Point shot it to the far side over Blackwood’s shoulder. Assists went to Sergachev and Nick Perbix.

Michael Eyssimont scored next, at 6:03, tipping a blue line shot while falling in front of the net. That shot came from Calvin deHaan. Perbix also got an assist.

Steven Stamkos made it 3-0 with a goal in the final minute of the period, during a 5-on-3 power play. Assists went to Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev.

Brandon Hagel made it 4-0 with a break away goal at 4:01 of the second period. Assists went to Alex Barré-Boulet and Victor Hedman.

Nicholas Paul added another at 7:29, with a back-hand on a rebound in traffic. Assists went to Stamkos and Hedman.

The Sharks pulled Blackwood after that goal and sent Kaapo Kahkonen into the net.

The sixth goal of the game came from Luke Glendenning at 5:44 of the third period. Connor Sheary’s shot was deflected by Glendenning and then went off of Matt Benning and Kyle Burroughs before bouncing into the net. Assists went to Sheary and Darren Raddysh.

The Sharks had just seven shots in each of the first two periods and nine in the third. They had two unsuccessful power plays and killed three of four penalties. The Sharks won 61.5% of the faceoffs. The Sharks were again without Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Alexander Barabanov was out due to injury.

The Sharks next play on Friday at 4:00 PM PT in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes.