San Jose Sharks Macklin Celebrini (71) and the Boston Bruins left wing Viktor Arvidsson (71) chase the puck in the first period at the Boston Garden on Thu Mar 12, 2026 (AP News photo)
By Mary Walsh
BOSTON– The San Jose Sharks defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Thursday. It was the first time the Sharks have won in Boston in eleven years. Michael Misa, Tyler Toffoli, Collin Graf and William Eklund scored for the Sharks. Alex Ndeljkovic made 38 saves for the win. Fraser Minten and David Pastrnak scored for the Bruins. Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves in the loss.
After the game, Sharks forward Collin Graf talked about the Sharks penalty kill:
“It’s been really good lately. Obviously the power plays are really good in the NHL and there’s a lot of good players out there so they’re going to create something. But for us it’s just trying to limit those chances and keep to the outside and then Ned was unreal and he was bailing us out all over the place in the kill too.”
“It felt really good. It felt like I was seeing the puck good and just things were pretty clear out there. We were dong a good job of keeping guys out of the way early on,” said Nedeljkovic after the game.
Michael Misa scored the only first period goal at 5:57. His wrist shot came from the edge of the blue paint, off a pass from William Eklund. An assist also went to Tyler Toffoli.
The Sharks were badly outshot by the Bruins in the first period, 14-7. There was just one penalty called, to John Klingberg for holding.
Tyler Toffoli scored on the power play at 14:15 of the second, deflecting Macklin Celebrini’s shot. An assist also went to Dmitry Orlov. That was the only goal of the second period.
The shots were much closer in the second period, 13-11 Boston. The lone penalty called in the period was against Boston, a high-sticking call to Mason Lohrei.
Collin Graf made it 3-0 with a short-handed goal at 3:13 of the third period. Graf got behind the Bruins defense with a pass from Alexander Wennberg. An assist went to Orlov as well.
Eklund broke his 19-game goal drought with a spectacular shot that he took while airborne, jumping or tripping over the goaltender’s stick. He batted the puck in at 8:20. Assists went to Sam Dickinson and Michael Misa.
The Bruins broke the shut-out soon after, with a goal from Fraser Minten just 10 seconds later. His wrist shot went right up the slot and was screen by the defender. Assists went to David Pastrnak and Marat Khusnutdinov.
David Pastrnak scored with a slap shot at 19:07 with the Bruins net empty. Assists went to Charlie McAvoy and Casey Mittelstadt.
The third period shotrs were close again, 13-10 Boston. There was only one penalty called before the final minute of the game. Then, at 19:50, four penalties were called after Charlie McAvoy put his shoulder into Kiefer Sherwood’s head. Three of those penalties were ten minute misconducts.
The Sharks next play on Saturday at 4:00 PM PT in Montreal against the Canadiens.
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