Las Vegas Golden Knights right wing Jonathan Marchessault (81) takes a shot against the San Jose Sharks goaltender Kappo Kahkonen (36) during the shootout at T Mobile Center in Las Vegas on Sun Dec 10, 2023 (AP News photo)
By Mary Walsh
The San Jose Sharks were defeated, 5-4 in a shootout, by the Golden Knights in Las Vegas on Sunday. Vegas goals came from Jonathan Marchessault (2), Chandler Stephenson and Brayden McNabb. Jiri Patera made 35 saves for the win. Sharks goals came from Mario Ferraro, Mike Hoffman(2) and Calen Addison. Kaapo Kahkonen made 23 saves in the loss.
The Sharks started the game without William Eklund or Marc-Edouard Vlasic in the lineup. Anthony Duclair left the game one shift into the second period with a jaw injury. Additionally, Justin Bailey missed more than 20 minutes of playing time but did return. Nonetheless, the Sharks managed a lot of shots on goal (39) and pulled off a surprising comeback to earn a point.
After the game, Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said, of the lineup changes: “When we lost those guys, obviously it doesn’t help us but I don’t think we had to change anything in terms of the way that we were playing. We were already going, we already felt good, I think if we had [Duclair] stay in the lineup for the full 60 minutes, who knows.”
Sharks Head Coach David Quinn said: “Just so proud of our guys, and then you throw in the fact that we lose two forwards during the course of the game, Duclair and Bailey… really had a short bench. Guy had to play a lot of minutes at the end of a road trip.”
Mario Ferraro opened the scoring 29 seconds into the game with a wrist shot from the top of the circle. It was his first goal of the season. Assists went to Kyle Burroughs and Mikael Granlund.
Marchessault tied the game 5:34 into the second period. His wrist shot went short side off after a quick entry that caught the Sharks outnumbered. An assist went to Ben Hutton.
Chandler Stephenson gave the Knights the lead with a deflection on the power play at 15:44. Assists went to Alex Pietrangelo and Mark Stone.
Brayden McNabb made it 3-1 with a wrist shot at 1:43 of the third period. Assists went to Jack Eichel and Kaedan Korczak.
Mike Hoffman cut the lead to 3-2 at 3:56 with a power play goal. Assists went to Granlund and Kaapo Kahkonen.
Marchessault scored his second of the night to make it 4-2 at 9:23. Assists went to Stephenson and Zach Whitecloud.
Calen Addison scored his first of the season and his first as a Shark at 16:15 of the third, cutting the Knights’ lead to 4-3. Assists went to Justin Bailey and Filip Zadina.
With the Sharks’ net empty, Hoffman scored his second of the night to push the game to overtime. That goal came at 19:21 and assists went to Tomas Hertl and Alexander Barabanov.
After a scoreless overtime period, Jack Eichel and Marchessault both scored in the shootout, giving the Golden Knights the win. Kevin Labanc and Granlund shot for the Sharks but Patera stopped them. Nicolas Roy’s shot was stopped by Kahkonen.
The Sharks will return home to play the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday at 7:30 PM PT.
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