Tag: Pierre-Luc Dubois

Demoralized Sharks Fall 5-1 to Kings; SJ dealt their sixth straight loss

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The Los Angeles Kings left wing Kevin Fiala (22) put the puck on net for a second period goal past San Jose Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen (31) at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Wed Dec 27, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 5-1 to the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. The Kings’ goals were scored by Kevin Fiala, Trevor Lewis, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Adrian Kempe, who scored twice. David Rittich made 24 saves for the win. Fabian Zetterlund scored the lone Sharks goal and Kaapo Kahkonen made 38 saves in the loss. This was the sixth loss in a row for the Sharks.

Although the Sharks won the first period of the game, their power play showed signs of what was to come. The Sharks power play registered no shots on net and gave up two short-handed shots. After the game, Sharks Head Coach David Quinn said:

“Really it was a tale of two games. I thought the first twenty-five minutes we played well, I thought we had some great chances. Then we got blitzed with two goals in five seconds, six seconds, whatever it was and that’s happened to us too often and you could just feel it again. And it just got away from us, we got demoralized and our power play really hurt us.”

When asked how the team can cope with collapses like giving up two goals in 13 seconds, Sharks forward Fabian Zetterlund said “we just have to have a couple good shifts, get the pucks deep, and play boring hockey… and then we can take it from there.”

The Sharks scored the only goal of the first period. Fabian Zetterlund scored with a snap shot on a breakaway at 11:02. It was his 10th goal of the season. The period was almost penalty-free, with just one call against the Kings at 18:23. At even strength, the Sharks outshot the Kings slightly with eight shots to the Kings’ six.

The Kings tied the game at 2:57 of the second period. Kevin Fiala scored with a wrist shot on a breakaway. An assist went to Jordan Spence.

13 seconds later, Trevor Lewis stole the puck from Mario Ferraro by the Sharks net and scored with a backhand.

Pierre-Luc Dubois made it 3-1 at 12:26, off a rebound from Arthur Kaliyev’s shot from high in the slot. Assists went to Kaliyev and Alex Laferriere,

The Kings outshot the Sharks 17-11 in the second period. The teams each took one penalty, overlapping by 24 seconds, in the middle of the period.

Adrian Kempe made it 4-1 at 3:36 of the third period. From between the circles, Kempe tipped a shot by Matt Roy. Assists went to Roy and Carl Grundstrom

Kempe’s second goal came with an impressive zone entry, skating past and around three Sharks to score with a wrist shot. Assists went to Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty. That goal came at 15:42.

The third period saw a flurry of penalties, starting with a fight at 5:29 that garnered an additional roughing penalty for Alex Laferriere. The Sharks then took two more penalties in the period. In the face-off circle, the Sharks won just 40.7% of the draws. The shot count was very lopsided, 20-6 Los Angeles, for a game total of 43-25 Kings.

Sharks defenseman Jacob MacDonald was placed on IR. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood was ill and so Magnus Chrona was called up as backup.

The Sharks next play on Thursday back in San Jose against the Edmonton Oilers at 7:30 PM PT.

Sharks Fall to Kings 4-3 in OT, Preseason in SLC

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Los Angeles Kings left wing Pierre-Luc Dubois (80) and San Jose Sharks Kyle Burroughs, top, fight during the third period in pre season action Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell to the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in overtime at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday. Pierre-Luc Dubois, Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore scored for the Kings during regulation. Adrian Kempe scored the OT winner.

Pheonix Copley made 24 saves for the win. Alexander Barabanov, Mike Hoffman and Thomas Bordeleau scored for the Sharks and Mackenzie Blackwood made 33 saves in the loss.

Kings center Pierre-Luc Dubois opened the scoring at 8:27 of the first period. Kevin Fiala and Vladislav Gavrikov got the assists.

Late in the period, Carl Grundstrom was called for tripping. In the ensuing power play, Sharks winger Alexander Barabanov tied it up at 17:39. Mikael Granlund and Anthony Duclair earned the assists.

The shots were close in the first period, at 12-10 Kings. The Sharks killed their only penalty in the period and scored on one of two power plays.

Anze Kopitar gave the Kings their second lead of the game at 8:16 of the second period. Drew Doughty got an assist on the goal.

Sharks winger Mike Hoffman tied it back up at 14:45 of the period, with assists going to Tomas Hertl and goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.

The Sharks killed both of two penalties they took in the period. They had one unsuccessful power play in the final minutes of the second frame. The shots were 12-9 Sharks.

Trevor Moore gave the Kings a third lead just 3:28 into the third period. Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault got the assists.

Sharks center Thomas Bordeleau tied the game for the third time at 14:15 of the period. William Eklund got the assist.

The penalties exploded in the third period, with two sets of matching double-minors, four misconducts, an interference and two unsporstmanlike conducts distributed among six players. The shot count for the period heavily favored Los Angeles, 15-5.

Adrian Kempe’s overtime winner was the only shot of the period and came just 17 seconds into the extra frame. Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty got assists.

This was the final 2023 preseason game for the Sharks. The Sharks’ next game will be October 12 at home against the visiting Vegas Golden Knights. Puck drop at 7:30 PM PT.

Sharks Lose to Jets 4-1; Third loss in four games

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Winnipeg Jets’ Nate Schmidt (88) scores the go ahead goal in the second period as Josh Morrissey (44) celebrates with Schmidt against the San Jose Sharks in Winnipeg on Thu Nov 11, 2021 (Canadian Press photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost 4-1 to the Jets at Winnipeg Thursday. Kyle Connor, Nate Schmidt, Jansen Harkins and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored for the Jets. Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves for the win. Andrew Cogliano scored for the Sharks and James Reimer made 30 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks Assistant Coach John MacLean was not willing to attribute the loss to fatigue: “I don’t know if [we] ran out of gas… I thought we had a couple of opportunities, we just weren’t able to bury it. And, you know, it was a close game there for a bit.” He also mentioned the lopsided penalty calls: “They get some power plays, we never really got any special… we never got any power plays. It was just one of those things, guys tried and it just didn’t come our way.”

The roster and the bench will likely look different for the next game, as players and staff will be returning from the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. McLean assessed the performance of the team in the absence of those players:

“After a loss you’re not really pleased, I mean you wish, there’s a couple of opportunities there missed as well in that. So, I will say that I’m pleased with the total effort that these guys showed throughout this, you know, the guys who got called up and the guys who were here. I mean I think overall they all buckled down and gave us an opportunity each night to win.”

The Sharks scored the first goal of the game, at 6:28 of the first period. Brent Burns picked up the puck near the boards and carried it across into the slot, then made a quick pass to Andrew Cogliano who was on the far side of the net. Cogliano lifted it into the short side for his second of the season.

Kyle Connor tied the game at 11:38. As the Jets entered the zone, Evgeny Svechnikov passed the puck from the right wide to Dubois in the middle of the ice. Dubois tok a shot that went off of Reimer’s pads for a short rebound. Connor was right there to shoot it back in behind Reimer.

The Sharks penalty kill gave up one shot on a single penalty for the period. The teams were dead even at ten shots each. It was the Sharks’ best face-off period, at 69%.

The second period started with an early fight, between the Sharks’ Jonah Gadjovich and the Jets’ Adam Lowry. The Sharks took a delay of game penalty at 7:24, and then matching roughing penalties at 10:02 went to Dominic Toninato and Ryan Merkley. Again, the Sharks penalty kill gave up just one shot.

The Jets took the lead at 14:11, with a shot from the blue line by Nate Schmidt. Assists went to Josh Morrissey and Blake Wheeler.

Jansen Harkins made it 3-1 at 19:16 of the second. Harkins and Adam Lowry got behind the Sharks for a two-on-one. From low in the slot, Lowry made a pass to Harkins for a deflection.

The Jets out-shot the Sharks 13-8 in the second, but the Sharks continued to dominate in the face-off circle at 60%. The third period saw the Sharks slip in that area, winning only 44% of the draws. The Sharks penalty kill allowed two shots during the single third-period Jets power play.

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored his eighth of the season into an empty net at 19:27 of the third. Assists went to Andrew Copp and Nikolaj Ehlers.

The Sharks’ next game will be in Colorado against the Avalanche, on Saturday at 6:00 PM PT.

Sharks Shut Out 4-0 By Blue Jackets

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Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks were shut out 4-0 in Columbus Saturday. The Blue Jackets got goals from Boone Jenner, Matt Duchene (on his second day with the team), Cam Atkinson and Pierre-Luc Dubois. Sergei Bobrovski made 26 saves for the shut out, while the Sharks’ Martin Jones made 19 saves on 23 shots before being replaced by Aaron Dell, who made three saves on as many shots.

After the game, Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said: “We don’t need a refresher. You know, we had a shut out the other night, so it’s not 6-5 every night. We’re doing our job defensively, that’s why we’re scoring. Tonight was one that kind of got away from us. Our special teams weren’t great, and five-on-five … didn’t generate a lot.”

Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said: “Fugly. I mean, you know, not much else to say. It’s one of those… you have a few of those games a year, I don’t know why. We didn’t execute, they were hungrier, they were more desperate, they deserved to win. Having said that, it was still a 2-0 game, we had some chances to maybe turn it a little bit but we didn’t deserve… We got what we deserved tonight.”

The Blue Jackets struck first at the 11-minute mark of the first. Josh Anderson carried the puck into the zone, facing resistance from Erik Karlsson. Brent Burns was also keeping an eye on him, perhaps too close an eye. Boone Jenner entered the zone behind Burns and caught Anderson’s pass for an unimpeded shot from the slot. Anderson got the only assist.

Columbus doubled their lead just 59 seconds into the second period. Artemi Panarin carried the puck in and waited until the last second to shoot. Jones stopped that but two Sharks defenders with one Blue Jacket crowded in front of the net and made it oddly difficult to see where that puck was going. Matt Duchene, however, had a god view of it as he skated to the net and popped the puck over the line. Assists went to Cam Atkinson and Panarin. It was Duchene’s first goal as a Blue Jacket since being traded to Columbus on Friday.

There were no penalties in the first period, but five were called in the second. Two of those power plays went to the Sharks, but they had no shots on goal in their first power play and just one in their second. The Sharks killed two of the Blue Jackets’ power plays, but they gave up a goal on the third.

With just 6.9 seconds left in the period and 1:36 left in the power play, Zach Werenski took a shot from the blue line that hit Jones and then trickled under him. Cam Atkinson found the puck behind the goalie and pushed it over the line. Assists went to Werenski and Panarin.

The Blue Jackets made it 4-0 at 6:02 of the third. Pierre-Luc Dubois skated into the zone, pressured by Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The pressure was not enough as Dubois got the shot off anyway. It did not look like Martin Jones expected that as the puck went right under him. Assists went to Dean Kukan and Oliver Bjorkstrand.

After the fourth goal, the Sharks pulled Martin Jones and put Aaron Dell in the net.

Erik Karlsson left the game after just four shifts in the second period. After the game, Pete DeBoer said that he had re-tweaked something and they “will see where it’s at tomorrow.” Marcus Sorensen left early in the third after being hit in the face by a shot from Dean Kukan.

The Sharks next play on Sunday in Detroit against the Red Wings at 12:00 noon PT.