Tag: Spencer Knight

Sharks Fall 6-3 to Blackhawks, Just One Shot in First; Slumping San Jose drops their third in a row

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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.

Sharks Fall 3-2 in OT to Panthers, Reimer Returns

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Florida Panthers center Frank Vatrano (77) jumps into the arms of his teammates at the SAP Center in San Jose after scoring a goal in overtime to win a narrow contest against the San Jose Sharks on Tue Mar 15, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE- The San Jose Sharks fell to the Florida Panthers 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday. Frank Vatrano scored twice, including the game winner, and Jonathan Huberdeau scored once for Florida. Spencer Knight made 24 saves for the win.

Logan Couture and Nicolas Meloche scored for San Jose and James Reimer made 31 saves in the loss. Joe Thornton, in his first return to the Shark Tank, had 10:03 of ice time for Florida.

The Sharks took the lead at 8:19 of the first period, on the power play. Tomas Hertl moved the puck up from below the goal line and Logan Couture redirected it in. Assists went to Hertl and Timo Meier. During the penalty kill, Florida’s Gustav Forsling blocked a shot with his ankle. He stayed down for a bit, made it to his feet, but had to be helped off the ice after the goal. He was out for the rest of the period but came back for the second.

Jonathan Huberdeau tied the game with a short-handed goal at 11:21. He intercepted a pass to nobody in the defensive zone, carried the puck to the other end, two-on-one. He didn’t have a pass so he took the the shot. It was the ninth short-handed goal of the season for Florida.

Nicolas Meloche got the lead back for the Sharks at 13:58. Marc-Edouard Vlasic caught up with a puck on its way out, whipped it back to Hertl, who passed it right on to Meloche. Meloche had some speed as he was moving into the zone and his shot zipped by Knight on the glove side.

Tomas Hertl had a chance to make it 3-1 near the end of the second period but it went off of the near post. That had to sting as he was in pretty close to miss that one.

The Panthers tied it again at 3:29 of the third with a goal from Frank Vatrano. Noel Acciari intercepted a clearing attempt by Logan Couture and centered the puck for Vatrano to rifle past Reimer.

The Panthers put the puck in the net at 8:52 but the Sharks challenged it for goaltender interference. Mason Marchment carried the puck in and took the shot but in the process he knocked both Eetu Luostarinen and Marc-Edouard Vlasic into Reimer. The goal was called back.

For the second time this season, the Panthers beat the Sharks in overtime. Frank Vatrano scored at 1:11 with a slapshot from high in the slot. An assists went to Gustav Forsling and Sam Reinhart.

The Sharks out-shot the Panthers 11-7 in the first and 12-9 in the scoreless second. In the third, the Panthers out-shot the Sharks by wide margin, 16-3. The Panthers spent a lot of time in the penalty box in the first two periods. The Sharks had to kill two penalties in the game, while the Panthers had to kill five, including some five-on-three time. The teams played four-on-four twice in the second period.

In all, the Sharks power play got eleven shots and one goal. The Panthers power play got four shots, but their penalty kill got two shots and a goal. The Sharks prevailed in face-offs, winning 55% of the draws, though they were better in the first two periods, winning 61% and 75%.

The Sharks next play on Thursday in Los Angeles against the Kings at 7:00 PM PT.