Sharks Lose 4-1 to Flyers, Graf Scores Lone Sharks Goal

Philadelphia Flayers Travis Konecny scored his 500th career goal against the San Jose Sharks on Tue Dec 9, 2025 at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost 4-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday. Christian Dvorak, Carl Grundstrom, Noah Cates and Travis Konecny scored for the Flyers. Dan Vladar made saves for the win. Collin Graf scored the only Sharks goal and Alex Nedeljkovic made 26 saves in the loss.

After scoring first, the Sharks gave up four goals to the Flyers. After the game, Sharks forward Ryan Reaves said: “You can’t win in this league not playing in your structure. And we show it every other game right now. That’s why we’re just kind of middle of the pack right now and I think we know we should be a little bit higher.”

Alexander Wennberg said:

“I don’t think we came out the way we wanted. We talked about playing fast, playing hard, tough puck plays and get the puck to the net. I mean obviously it’s not to the standard we want. So… disappointing result and there were some good parts to the game but I mean we gotta come in and give them a better fight.”

Collin Graf opened the scoring at 11:33 with a snap shot. Will Smith made a cross-ice pass to John Klingberg, who sent it right back across to Graf for the shot.

Christian Dvorak tied the game at 18:39. Dvorak and Trevor Zegras broke away and went into the Sharks zone two-on-one against Sam Dickinson. Dvorak got around Dickinson and beat Nedeljkovic on the glove side with a backhand. Assists went to Zegras and Travis Konecny.

The Sharks were outshot 16-3 in the first period. The Sharks also took two penalties and the Flyers took none.

Carl Grundstrom scored the second Flyers goal at 3:20 of the second period. Grundstrom tipped a shot by Nick Seeler. A secondary assist went to Travis Sanheim.

Noah Cates scored the third Flyers goal at 19:48 of the second period. Bobby Brink made a pass to Cates as they rushed to the net. Cates beat Nedeljkovic with a wrist shot on the blocker side. Assists went to Brink and Jamie Drysdale.

The shots were closer in the second, 10-8 Flyers. The Flyers also took the only penalty in the period.

Travis Konecny scored the final goal from the Sharks’ blue line into an empty at 18:17. Dvorak got an assist on that one. The Sharks led in shots in the third, 7-4. The Flyers again took the only penalty in the period.

The Sharks next play on Thursday in Toronto against the Maple Leafs at 4:00 PM PT.

Sharks Fall 4-3 to Flyers in Shootout

San Jose Sharks Tim Liljegren (left), clears the puck away from the Philadelphia Flyers Ryan Poehling (right) in the second period at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Mon Nov 11, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks were defeated by the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 in a shootout Monday. Eric Johnson, Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov scored for the Flyers. Samuel Ersson made 27 saves for the win. Jack Thompson, Mikael Granlund and Barclay Goodrow scored for the Sharks. Vitek Vanacek made 39 saves for the Sharks.

The game was fairly one-sided, but changed sides midway through. The Flyers scored three, then the Sharks scored three. What accounted for this shift, at least on the part of the Sharks? Barclay Goodrow said:

“We had to tighten things up. I think by this point in the year we know how we need to play in order to be successful and when we stray away from that you get the results that you saw early in the game. So I think we dialed it back in and we’ve just got to find a way to play like that from the start.”

Sharks Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky also talked about reasons for the slow start: “Back to back probably would be the first part. We just couldn’t get into the game, we had some pushes at times, we did some good things at times. But just couldn’t play with that same energy and competitiveness I would say as last night.”

Eric Johnson opened the scoring 1:40 into the game. Anthony Richard got control of the puck coming out of the Flyers’ zone and skated into the Sharks’ zone with Johnson. A cross-ice pass got around Jack Thompson to Johnson for a wrist shot that beat Vanacek. That was the first shot of the game.

Travis Konecny made it 2-0 with a power play goal at 15:56. In a very pretty play, The puck went from Emil Andrea on the blue line to Matvei Michkov near the goal line and back up to Konecny in the slot for a snap shot.

Michkov scored his own goal at 5:09 of the second period, breaking away in the neutral zone. Two Sharks chased him into the zone after he caught a pass right on the Sharks blue line. His shot went under Vanacek and in. Ryan Poehling and Egor Zamula got the assists.

Barclay Goodrow fought Nicck Seeler at 12:09 of the period, possibly motivating the Sharks for the comeback that started a few minutes later. The fight was the only penalty called in the period. Givani Smith also fought Eric Johnson right after the first goal of the game, but that fight did not lead to a scoring spree.

Jack Thompson got the Sharks on the board at 15:29 of the second. William Eklund carried the puck in and sent it across the goal mouth at the last moment. It went off of Thompson’s skate and in. Mikael Granlund also got an assist.

Granlund made it 3-2 at 18:33 of the second. Eklund controlled the puck off an offensive zone draw and skated behind the net. Instead of continuing around, he doubled back with a pass to Granlund for a shot on the short side. Granlund’s wrist shot squeaked in under the bar. Assists went to Eklund and Fabian Zetterlund.

Early in the third period. Givani Smith made an impressive save as Sharks and Flyers scrambled in front of the net. The puck was on its way to the line but Vanecek couldn’t see it. Smith swept it back and under his goaltender.

Barclay Goodrow tied the game at 17:36 of the thirds period. Henry Thrun sent the puck to the net from the point. Goodrow snapped it in from a bad angle. Assists went to Thrun and Cody Ceci.

At the end of the third period, Michkov took a penalty for punching Macklin Celebrini in the face a couple of times, putting the Sharks on the power play to start overtime. The Sharks had four shots in overtime and the Flyers had two.

Owen Tippett, Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny shot for the Flyers. Michkov and Konecny scored.

Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith shot for the Sharks but Ersson stopped both of them.

The Sharks next play on Thursday at 4:00 PM PT, in New York against the Rangers.