Ryan Donato erupted in the Blackhawks’ 6-3 win over the Sharks on Monday (Michael Reaves/Getty Images file photo)
By Mary Walsh
The San Jose Sharks fell 6-3 to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. Connor
Bedard, Connor Murphy, Ryan Donato, Sam Rinzel and Ilya Mikheyev scored for Chicago. Spencer Knight made 24 saves for the win. Will Smith, Macklin Celebrini and Shakir Mukhamadullin scored for San Jose. Yaroslav Askarov made six saves on ten shots and Alex Nedeljkovic made five saves in relief.
This was the most lopsided loss for the Sharks since January 11, when they lost 7-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. After the game, Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini said: “After that first period, I thought we did a really good job of staying on top of them. Just a couple mistakes, a couple of chances we give up and they just put it away. When it’s going like that it’s tough to … bounce back.”
Sharks defenseman Vincent Desharnais said: “Our D-zone is clearly not good enough. Our forecheck too, I think that’s one of our biggest strengths, when our forecheck is going I feel like all three zones are going well. And it’s been a couple games now that our forecheck is not going or it’s going ten minutes out of sixty. So you gotta play a full game.”
The first goal of the game came at the seven minute mark of the first. Connor Bedard scored with a snap shot on the power play. Assists went to Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi. That was the only goal of the first period. The Sharks had only one shot on goal but the Blackhawks only had four. To the Sharks’ credit, they killed two of three penalties.
The Blackhawks doubled it up at 2:14 of the second period. Connor Murphy scored with a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle. Assists went to Matt Grzelcyk and Ryan Donato.
Donato scored his first of the night at 9:35 with a wrist shot. Assists went to Ilya Mikheyev and Jason Dickinson.
Sam Rinzel scored a minute later with a slap shot high in the slot. The assist went to Mikheyev.
The Sharks pulled Askarov after that goal and sent in Nedeljkovic.
Will Smith got the Sharks on the board at 12:05. His snap shot came from low in the faceoff circle. Assists went to Macklin Celebrini and Collin Graf.
Ilya Mikheyev scored less than a minute later, tipping a shot from Dickinson. Ryan Donato also got an assist.
Macklin Celebrini scored at 15:11 with a wrist shot from inside the faceoff circle. Tyler Toffoli got the assist.
The Sharks outshot the Blackhawks 12-9 in the second. There was a single penalty against each team in the middle frame.
Shakir Mukhamadullin scored with a backhand at 2:13 of the third period. Assists went to Philipp Kurashev and Vincent Desharnais.
Ryan Donato scored his second of the night at 14:41 of the third. Assists went to Mikheyev and Murphy. In all, Donato had four points on the night.
The only penalties called in the third went against the Blackhawks. The shots were 14-4 Sharks.
The Sharks next play in Colorado against the Avalanche on Wednesday at 6:00 PM PT.
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