Tag: Nashville Predators

San Jose Sharks left winger Alex Barabanov (94) gets the puck past the Nashville Predator defenseman Jeremy Lauzon (right) in the first period at SAP Center in San Jose on Sat Feb 24, 2024 (AP News photo)

Saturday, February 24th, 2024

By Troy Ewers

San Jose, CA – The San Jose Sharks host the Nashville Predators in the SAP Center and the boys in teal look to recover from last game. The Sharks penalty kill had its seven-game streak without allowing a power play goal snapped (Mason Morelli, first period).

Henry Thrun was activated from injured reserve prior to the game and logged one takeaway and one blocked shot in 20:43 time on ice. Mario Ferraro led the Sharks with four blocked shots in a team-high 23:47 time on ice and paces the team in blocked shots this season (148). Mackenzie Blackwood’s four game win streak and five-game point streak (4-0-1) were snapped with the loss.

Slow first period for the Sharks, a lot of time in the offensive zone, but no goals off eight shots. Nashville despite two penalties that they killed off, they scored a goal halfway through the period. After Roman Josi passed to Michael McCarron, McCarron dished a tape to tape assist to Keifer Sherwood, who scored his sixth goal of the season. 1-0 Predators. Sharks down one after one period, but still a lot of opportunities to captialize on. 

Nashville gained another goal in the second period off a power play goal. Henry Thrun got a tripping call 17 minutes into the second and this penalty led to an efficient goal for the Predators. Filip Forsberg hit a wrist shot from the point, assisted by Tommy Novak and Gustav Nyquist. 2-0 Nashville.

This goal was Forsberg’s 27th goal of the season and 56th point of the season. Sharks gained more opportunities, but Juuse Saros of the Predators was stopping everything.

Last period of the game started off hot for the Sharks. Mikael Granlund kept San Jose in it with a wrist shot past Saros, 2-1 and Sharks were back in the game. Granlund with 31 points over the past 35 games. Nashville didn’t let up off the gas though, Sherwood scored his second goal of the night on a breakaway silencing the crowd, 3-1 Nashville.

Sharks were still fighting early in the third as Filip Zadina scored off a rebound making it 3-2 and the crowd got a hit of adrenaline and momentum had shifted. Right after the Sharks goal, they almost had another line thanks to Anthony Duclair, but after review it was no goal and San Jose was down one goal with 10 minutes left in the game.

The game went down to the final minute, but after an empty net goal with 10 seconds left, fans made their way to the exits and the game was over 4-2 Nashville.

A hard fought game for the Sharks, but Nashville had the game from the beginning. Next game for the Sharks is Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils, who are having a hell of a season, so the hard season keeps getting harder for the boys in teal as the season winds down into the final two months.

The Nashville Predators center Tommy Novak (82) smiling is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a second period goal. All the San Jose Sharks goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood (29) can do is look on the celebration at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Sat Oct 21, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks extended their start-of-season losing streak to five games with a 5-1 road loss to the Nashville Predators. Nashville goals came from Samuel Fagemo, Kiefer Sherwood, Luke Evangelista and Tommy Novak, who scored twice. Juuse Saros stopped 31 shots for the win. San Jose’s Tomas Hertl scored his first of the season, preventing a shutout. Mackenzie Blackwood made 29 saves in the loss.

After the game, Tomas Hertl said:

“I think we played a pretty good game, you know, and in the second like we stopped playing for one minute and it kind of changed the game. But even after that I think the 20 minutes in the second period we got pretty good looks, we should score some goals. You know, power play finally looks better. but still it’s not enough. I just don’t like the last ten minutes because we just left [Blackwood] alone.”

Nico Sturm said: “I think our inability to execute for 60 minutes is pretty apparent. We do a lot of good things but we don’t do it the whole game. That costs you in the National Hockey League.” He went on to describe the frustration the team is facing during this bad start to the season:

“Sometimes it feels like we’re taking one step forward and two steps back. It’s a little bit… obviously, it’s tough. I wish I had the magic formula. But we’ll stick together, show up for practice. That’s the biggest thing is not letting these things drive us apart as a group and everything else hockey-wise we’ll sort out.”

The first Nashville goal of the game came late in the first period. Alexandre Carrier caught the puck on the blue line and sent it back down to Gustav Nyquist on the boards. Nyquist passed it quickly across the ice to Samuel Fagemo for the shot.

Nashville’s second and third goals came in quick succession early in the second period. Roman Josi carried the puck into the Sharks zone where Nico Sturm knocked him down. The puck came loose to Kiefer Sherwood high in the zone. He passed it down and across the ice to Tommy Novak who tipped it in at 2:06.

12 seconds later, Sherwood scored another. Tyson Barrie won a race to the puck and sent it up the ice to Luke Evangelista. His quick pass back down the ice found Sherwood in the faceoff circle for the shot.

Novak scored his second on a power play at 2:47 of the third period. Nyquist caught the puck near the goal line and dropped back while Novak got to the front of the net for a close-in shot. A secondary assist went to Juuso Parssinen.

Tomas Hertl got the Sharks on the scoreboard with a goal at 10:33 of the third. Mario Ferraro sent a shot from the blue line past the net and off the boards for a bank pass to Hertl, who was closing on the net and shot it in easily. A secondary assist went to Nikolai Knyzhov.

Luke Evangelista made it 5-1 at 13:26 with a break away goal. Dante Fabbro got the assist.

Sharks Head Coach David Quinn described it as “a game of extremes. You know, I thought there were some really good things going on for a while, then, you know, when we’re bad we’re bad.” Nonetheless, the Sharks improved on previous games by staying close on the shot clock, with 32 shots to Nashville’s 34. The Sharks power play went 0/2, but they killed three of five Nashville power plays. The Sharks won 56.1% of their faceoffs.

The Sharks next game will be at 4:45 PM PT on Tuesday in Sunrise against the Florida Panthers.

Photo courtesey of San Jose Sharks. Matt Benning gets ready before a game.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

On a chilly night in San Jose the Sharks took on the Predators and struggled on home ice losing by a final of 6-2.

The goaltending matchup was between James Riemer for San Jose and Juuse Saros for Nashville.

The first period began with Nashville controlling most of the play while San Jose couldn’t get much going offensively.

Highlighting this lack of offense was their shots which was still at zero for the Sharks at the 12:00 mark of the first period.

On a power play Nashville capitalized as Nino Niederreiter tipped home his 17th goal of the season to make it 1-0.

At the end of the first the shots favored Nashville at 8-4.

Nashville got the second period started on the right foot as less than two minutes in Mikael Granlund scored to make it 2-0. The goal, which was Granlund’s eight of the season was on a floaty wrist shot that Riemer most likely wanted back

A little later in the period Nico Sturm was called for a five minute penalty though after review the officials took away the penalty entirely.

After that review just a few moments later Erik Karlsson was called for a hooking penalty putting Nashville on the power play.

While on the power play though there was a race for a loose puck in Nashville’s end which lead to Nico Sturm picking up the puck and shelving it over Saros. It was Sturm’s 12th goal of the season and made it a 2-1 game.

When the power play ended the Sharks got another chance as Erik Karlsson came out of the box and was fead a breakaway pass. The breakaway ended though with Karlsson hitting the crossbar and the score remaining the same.

Nashville not long after the goal got a odd-man rush and converted on it as Granlund scored his second goal of the game making it 3-1.

The Sharks were given a chance to get back in the game as Kevin Gravel took a penalty for interference.

Matt Benning while trying to break the puck out on the power play ended up turning it over leading to a goal for Yakov Trenin increasing Nashville’s lead to 4-1.

At the end of the second the shots still favored Nashville at 22-15.

Unlike the first two period San Jose got off to a good start scoring less than a minute in as Martin Kaut scored his first goal as a Shark.

With the score now 4-2 the team teal seemed to have new life as they controlled most of the play to start the third.

That momentum was killed though when on a odd man rush Niederreiter scored off of an accidental tip in by Noah Gregor making it 5-2.

Piling on to the lead on a power play Tommy Novak scored off a beautiful feed from Matt Duchene increasing Nashville’s lead to four.

Novak’s goal ended up being the last of the game as the Sharks finished off a dissapointing showing at home.

The three stars of the game were 1st: Mikael Granlund 2nd: Matt Duchene 3rd: Philip Tomasino

“I thought we were lifeless, I thought we were really not sharp in a lot of ways,” head coach David Quinn said after the game.

The Sharks will look to bounce back Saturday when they play at home against the Chicago Blackhawks at 7 p.m.