Sharks Lose 7-3 to Golden Knights, Losing Streak at 9

Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a first period goal as the San Jose Sharks Mikael Granlund (64) foreground skates off. The Sharks once again surrender three goals in the first period this time at T Mobile Center in Las Vegas at Sat Oct 26, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost 7-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights, bringing their season-opening losing streak to nine. Tanner Pearson, Jack Eichel, Brett Howden, Pavel Dorofayev and Mark Stone scored for Vegas. Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves for the win. Mikael Granlund, Nico Sturm and Luke Kunin scored for San Jose. Vitek Vanacek made 35 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro talked about the team’s slow starts:

“We gotta find a way to weather the storm in energetic buildings. LA, it’s their home opener, same thing kinda happened. We’re chasing the game far too much right now. I think there’s a lot more areas that are not good enough but that’s definitely something that’s not helping our case.”

Sharks Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky described the team’s state of mind: “I don’t think anyone’s happy by any means. There’s a lot of emotion in that locker room. Frustration, anger. It’s tough. It’s tough right now.”

Tanner Pearson scored the first goal of the night with the first shot of the game at 1:54. William Karlsson set up the slap shot with a quick backhand pass off the boards. A secondary assist went to Alexander Holtz.

Jack Eichel made it 2-0 less than two minutes later. Mark Stone moved up to the right point before passing the puck to Eichel in the left faceoff circle. Alex Pietrangelo also got an assist.

Brett Howden made it 3-0 late in the period. Tomas Hertl carried the puck in and then made a pass to Howden who was skating to the net. Howden scored with a wrist shot on Vanacek’s stick side. Pavel Dorofeyev got the secondary assist.

The Sharks were outshot 22-4 in the first period.

Mikael Granlund got one back for the Sharks midway through the second period. Granlund tried a wrap-around and when that did not work he got the puck right back and pushed it over the line. William Eklund and Mario Ferraro got the assists.

William Karlsson scored short-handed less than a minute later. Vanacek took a chance and came well out of the net to poke the puck away but Karlsson got it back and evaded the discombobulated Sharks defense. Pietrangelo got an assist.

Pavel Dorofeyev made it 5-1 with a power play goal in the last minute of the second period. Assists went to Shea Theodore and Mark Stone.

Nico Sturm scored the Sharks’ second goal a few seconds later with a wrist shot into the top corner from the faceoff circle.

The Sharks came closer in shots during the second period, mustering 11 to Vegas’ 15.

Mark Stone made it 6-2 at 11:10 of the third period. Eichel carried the puck towards the net and then found Stone with a drop pass. Assists went to Eichel and Barbashev.

Luke Kunin scored the Sharks’ third goal from a scrum in front of the net at 13:29. An assist went to Fabian Zetterlund.

Brett Howden scored his second of the night at 17:07. Assists went to Dorofeyev and Hertl.

The Sharks only allowed five shots in the third period and got credit for 11.

The Sharks next play on Monday at 6:00 PM PT in Salt Lake City against the Utah Hockey Club.

NHL podcast with Matt Harrington: Leafs Samsonov stops 30 CBJ shots for shutout; Rangers Tarasenko breaks in with game’s first goal vs. Kraken

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov, left, makes a stop in front of Columbus Blue Jackets forward Boone Jenner, right, and Maple leafs defenseman TJ Brodie during the second period at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Fri Feb 10, 2023 (AP News photo)

On the NHL podcast with Matt:

#1 The Toronto Maple Leafs (32-13-8) goaltender Ilya Samsonov stopped 30 Columbus Blue Jacket (15-33-4) shots in the Leafs win over the Jackets 3-0 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. The Leafs John Taveras scored two goals in the win.

#2 What a little inspiration will do as the New York Rangers (30-14-8) Vladimir Tarasenko on the first night on the job for the Rangers scored the Rangers first goal of the night at 2:49 in the first period vs. the Seattle Kraken (29-18-5). Tarasenko who was dealt to the Rangers from the St Louis Blues is enjoying his new environment.

#3 Matt, the Los Angeles Kings Dustin Brown is having his sweater number retired #23. Brown also had his statue unveiled at Crypto.com Arena, Brown’s statue also joins former Kings greats Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille statues outside of the arena.

#4 The Dallas Stars Jason Robertson is grabbing all publicity that he can he is fifth among US born players in points with 193 goals in 178 games. Robertson is fourth of US born players with 91 since joining the NHL in 2020-21. His teammate Joe Pavelski who is second of US born players has 435 goals.

#5 While the Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Kane says he’s intrigued about going to the New York Rangers. Kane feels that Tarsenko filled that void going from the Blues to the Rangers. How true is that and could Kane help fill a void in Madison Square Garden?

Join Matt Harrington for the NHL podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com on Saturdays

Sharks Beat Capitals 4-1, Meloche Scores GWG

San Jose Sharks defenseman Nicolas Meloche, center, celebrates his goal against the Washington Capitals with teammates Matt Nieto, left, and Andrew Cogliano at the Capital One Arena in DC on Wed Jan 26, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks (22-19-2) defeated the Washington Capitals (23-12-9) 4-1 Wednesday in Washington DC. Noah Gregor, Nicolas Meloche, Jonathan Dahlen and Andrew Cogliano scored for the Sharks. James Reimer made 32 saves for the win. Daniel Sprong scored for Washington and Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves in the loss.

Odds were long that any team would beat the Capitals on Wednesday. It was their first back to back regulation loss of the season. The Sharks, on the other hand, had something to prove after a 7-1 loss against Tampa Bay last Saturday. Of Wednesday’s game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“It was definitely a response game. You saw the things that we didn’t do against Tampa, the desperation, the urgency, some depth scoring, the blocking of the shots, sacrificing for each other. I think that was what we stressed the last couple of days, it was about showing up, responding and picking ourselves off the floor.”

The Sharks will be without defenseman Erik Karlsson until mid-March and it does not seem that reinforcements are on the way. Nikolai Knyzhov and Jacob Middleton are both still out with injuries.

One player who will get more responsibility in light of those absences is Nicolas Meloche. Of his performance Wednesday, Boughner said: “I really liked him down in the trenches, I thought he was big and heavy, I thought he was physical, he won a lot of battles, made some good plays on some exits. So, that’s what we need from Mel every night.”

Noah Gregor scored the first goal of the game at 7:41 of the first. Tomas Hertl carried the puck up to the point before passing it back to Burns, who was in the face-off circle. Burns spun and passed it across the slot to Gregor, who was lurking near the far corner of the net to put the puck over the line. It was Gregor’s second of the season.

The Sharks outshot the Capitals 14-8 in the first period, but won only 48% of the face-offs.

Nicolas Meloche made it 2-0 Sharks at 3:58 of the second. Matt Nieto gathered up a turnover at the Capitals blue line and raced into the zone with Andrew Cogliano. Nieto made a pass to a trailing Meloche, who took a quick shot from the slot to score his first NHL goal.

The Capitals led in shots 11-7 for the second period, and their power play got three shots on goal in two tries. The Sharks also had a power play but the Washington penalty kill prevented any shots against and got one short-handed shot to boot. In the face-off circle, the Sharks improved drastically to 79%.

Daniel Sprong scored for Washington 14 seconds into the third period. The puck went off of the linesman’s leg in a face-off in the Sharks’ zone. Nicklas Backstrom got to it first and sent it up to Sprong aboce the face-off circle. Sprong’s shot went through a line of traffic and in.

The Sharks took a delay of game penalty at 13:19. Logan Couture was trying to clear the puck out and he hit Brent Burns and the puck went out of play. Matt Nieto had a nice breakaway chance during the ensuing penalty kill but Samsonov stopped it. Apart from that, the Sharks could not clear the puck until the final 20 seconds of the kill, but they did kill it. Washington got four shots during the power play.

Sortly after that, Timo Meier and Alexander Ovechkin went hard at the Washington net and Ovechkin fell into Samsonov. Samsonov was down for bit but stayed in the game.

With 3:09 left in the game, Jonathan Dahlen made it 3-1 for the Sharks. Dahlen carried the puck into the zone and then pulled up to wait while Nick Bonino got to the net for a fly-by screen. As Bonino passed in front of the goalie, Dahlen’s shot skipped over Samsonov’s pad. It was Dahlen’s first goal in fifteen games. Timo Meier got the assist.

Andrew Cogliano made it 4-1 with an empty net goal at 19:39. Logan Couture got the assist.

Garnet Hathaway and Jonah Gadjovich fought to a draw after the final horn.

The Sharks blocked 23 shots in Wednesday’s game. They were barely out-shot by the Capitals 33-30. The Sharks won 54% of the face-offs.

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

Sharks Shut-Out by Caps, 4-0; Dahlen leaves in second period with shoulder injury

San Jose Sharks head coach behind the bench looks up at the scoreboard in the third period which reads bad news as the Sharks get shutout by four goals from the Washington Capitals at SAP Center on Sat Nov 20, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks (8-8-1) fell to the Washington Capitals (11-2-5) 4-0 Saturday. Conor Sheary and Alexander Ovechkin each scored two for the Capitals and Ilya Samsonov made 22 saves in the shut-out win. Adin Hill made 17 saves for San Jose in the loss.

Conor Sheary gave Washington an early lead with a goal at 2:17. Daniel Sprong carried the puck into the zone, battling to get by Sharks defenders. With Sharks all around him, Sprong still managed to get a pass across to Sheary for a shot that went under Adin Hill. Assists went to Sprong and Aliaksei Protas.

Alex Ovechkin scored on the power play at 13:58. John Carlson made a pass across the width of the ice, so that the puck landed nicely for an Ovechkin one-timer. The shot went by Hill on the blocker side, finding a gap that was not big. Assists went to Carlson and TJ Oshie.

Midway through the first period, Jonathan Dahlen left the ice and went to the dressing room with what appeared to be an upper body injury. He returned to play two shifts at the start of the second period.

The teams were tied in shots at the end of the first, 6-6. They each had two power plays, but three of those penalties were overlapping by at leaxt 30 seconds. Each team had two power play shots. The Capitals were better in the face-off circle, winning 55% of the draws.

The Capitals appeared to have scored a third goal at 14:31 of the second but the goal was waved off. Adin Hill was impeded by a Washington player being sprawled on top of him.

The Sharks out-shot the Capitals in the second, 10-7. The Sharks power play managed four shots on goal during double minor, and their penalty kill gave up one shot to the Capitals. The Sharks improved in the face-off circle to 67%.

The Sharks started the third period still on the penalty kill, but allowed no more shots during that Capitals power play.

Conor Sheary scored his second of the game to made it 3-0 at 15:10 of the third. Adin Hill stopped John Carlson’s shot but a small rebound went right to Sheary on the doorstep. Assists went to Carlson and Ovechkin.

Ovechkin scored into and empty net at 18:56 to make it 4-0. He took the shot from just inside his own zone. An assist went to Nic Dowd.

The final shot count was 22-21 Sharks. The Sharks had four power plays to the Capitals’ three, and the Sharks won 55% of the face-offs.

The Sharks next play on Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes, in San Jose at 7:30 PM PT.