Tag: Minnesota Wild

The Sharks once again for Thursday night action at SAP Center hosting the second-best team in the Central

Mac. Celebrini cellies his first goal in his return from injury at SAP Center in San Jose, CA on Nov 7, 2024 (Photo by San Jose Sharks)

By Fernando Abarca – San Jose Sharks Beat Writer.

SAN JOSE–Another night of action for the Sharks as the celebrations in commemoration of the fight against cancer begin league-wide. The Teal celebrates this fight Thursday night while hosting one of the best teams in the Western Conference.

San Jose pulled a good battle on Tuesday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets with a win in OT adding another win to the standings but couldn’t take out the Minnesota Wild lacking in offense the Sharks took a three goal loss 5-2 on Thursday night at SAP Center.

The Sharks have seen some improvement in getting wins. However, the Teal has struggled to manage to hold leads and keep the score in their favor.

The good news besides the victory was the return of our own Macklin Celebrini, who was injured during the first week of the regular season with a lower-body injury. Mac was clear and healthy to return to the ice.

Also, a wholesome moment happened on the ice before the start of the first period. Ezra, a local kid, witnessed his first hockey game ever and had the chance to be featured during the face-off. Erza just completed a nine-session chemo for the Medulloblastoma brain tumor. As hockey writers, we are glad Erza won the battle.

The first period started with the Wild scoring just two minutes after the start of the period Zach Bogosian, assisted by D. Chisholm and M. Foligno with a wrist shot, netted the first one for the visitors.

In the second period, that was the period where competitive hockey started to take place when Macklin Celebrini scored the first for the Sharks, making a statement of his return to the ice, The Barn certainly missed him. Assisted by Mikael Granlund and Henry Thrun.

The tie did not last that long as the Wild came harder on the Sharks.

Two goals were scored in the second period for the Wild. One slap-shot by Matts Zuccarello plus a snap-shot by Matt Boldy on a Power-Play goal. These two goals turned off the vibes at the tank for the rest of the period.

However, it could have gone a 4-1 score in the second due to a coach’s decision for a goal overturned as Ryan Hartman preceded the puck on an off-side position in an offensive zone.

The action continued in the third period with Minnesota scoring a definite fourth goal, and this time not being overturned with Jonas Brodin putting the four on the scoreboard of the SAP Center assisted by Frederick Gaudreau and Kirill Kaprizov.

Close to the end of the game, Celebrini delighted the 10,526 in attendance with another goal, making two goals for the Sharks with the help of Grandlund. The goal created a little hope, but not enough to keep fighting.

As the period nears its end, bad decisions are once again affecting the Sharks. Minnesota’s Matt Boldy took the lead, making his second of the night, and buried any hopes of a win for San Jose with an empty net goal. Sadly, The ideas could not be properly implemented.

This time, Celebrini did not get help from his teammates, but what he had been building could look special.

The Sharks will get some rest and are back in action this Saturday evening at Prudential Center in New Jersey for a 4:30pm PST faceoff.

Sharks are back home on Mon Nov 18 when the Teal face the Red Wings.

San Jose Sharks goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood (29) puts the stop on a shot by Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson (14) in the first period at the XCel Energy Center in St Paul on Thu Mar 28, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Daniel Dullum

Thursday, March 28, 2024

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A long season for the San Jose Sharks didn’t get any shorter on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center, as a Minnesota Wild team, playing with desperation, defeated the rebuilding Sharks 3-1 to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

The Wild (35-28-9, 79 points) are in a scramble for an NHL Western Conference playoff berth, trailing Vegas by nine points and idle St. Louis by three in the Wild Card race with 10 games to play. San Jose (16-48-8, 40 points) is mired in eighth place in the Pacific Division, one point behind Anaheim.

“We’re dying for a win here, and I feel for our guys,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “But you have to play 60, you can’t play 40. We’re in that mode of playing the first two periods really well and struggle in the third. We kind of reversed that a little bit tonight.

“It says a lot. We continue to battle, and in those last two periods, it would have been easy to pack it in after the first period. We did anything but that.”

The Sharks have lost their last nine games, and were looking to bounce back from a 6-3 loss to Dallas on Tuesday.

“It was a good effort. It’s frustrating when the guys are playing hard, playing the right way,” Sharks goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood said. “Obviously the first period didn’t go our way, but I thought we responded well and deserved better than no points tonight.”

The Wild wasted little time scoring the go-ahead tally at 18 seconds of the third period. Matt Boldy made it 2-1 Minnesota when he circled behind the net, took a feed from Kirill Kaprizov and swatted the puck behind Blackwood, who found himself out of position.

Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman tacked on an empty-net goal at 19:06, his 19th.

“I give our team a lot of credit for getting back on track with a good second period and an even better third period,” Quinn said. “I liked an awful lot of what I saw in those two periods.”

Minnesota had two power plays in the first period while outshooting the Sharis 15-1, and had one goal – Joel Eriksson Ek’s 30th of the season, Eriksson Ek took a centering pass from Kirill Kaprizov and flipped a wrist shot to the top shelf over Blackwood’s right shoulder.

“I thought we did some good things physically in the first period,” Quinn said. “But I thought we were really out of it mentally. The penalties didn’t help us because (the Wild’s) power play can move the puck around pretty good. We were fortunate to get out of that period down 1-0.”

The Sharks came up with the equalizer at 16:01 of the second period, tying the game at 1-1. Mikael Granlund took a feed in the slot and stuffed the puck into the lower corner of the goal past Filip Gustavsson’s glove for his 11th goal of the season. Jan Rutta and Marc-Edouard Vlasic got the assists.

“I think our response was better in the second and third period,” Sharks forward Justin Bailey said. “Between periods, we were reminded to clean up some little things and make sure we were getting to the puck. (Minnesota) is a fast team, a quick team, and make them earn all the defense they got. I think we did that tonight.”

Quinn felt his fourth line of Filip Zadina, Ryan Carpenter and Kevin Labanc had a strong third period that helped keep the Sharks in the game.

“The first two periods were okay, but the third period was their best,” Quinn said. “I thought they gave us a real good period. We had some chances, but we just couldn’t get one by in that third period.”

Gustavsson stopped 27-of-28 San Jose shots on goal, while Blackwood made 29 saves on 31 Wild shots.

“I felt a lot sharper tonight,’ Blackwood said. “I was seeing the puck better and I had better positioning. It felt good to get back into a better rhythm and feel like myself again.”

SHARK BITES: San Jose scratches were D Jacob McDonald, RW Givani Smith and LW Alexander Barabanov. … The Sharks travel to St. Louis on Saturday before returning home for an April 1 contest with the Seattle Kraken.