Consecutive wins have evaded the San Jose
Sharks all season. That ended on Sunday night as the Sharks stole a victory
from the host Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis. The third
stop of their current 4-game road trip looked as if the Sharks were headed to
their 13th loss in 17 games, but a pair of 3rd period goals helped San Jose get
to overtime and ultimately the shootout where they beat the Wild 3-2.
After arguably their best win of the season on Friday night, San Jose was
looking to add to the positive vibes that came from that victory. They didn't
play poorly, they just couldn't generate any offense. That is until the 3rd
period.
It was a gritty comeback late in a road trip where the legs
can start to get heavy.
The Wild grabbed the 1-0 lead 6:45 into the
contest when Frederick Gaudreau gathered a pass from Kirill Kaprizov and waited
out James Reimer before scoring his 2nd goal of the year. Kaprizov drew 4
defenders to the left wing boards, before he sent a puck to the front of the
net for Gaudreau to pick his shot.
Logan Couture just missed evening
the score in the final minute of the period when his shot rang off the
crossbar. Other than that, there wasn't much to feel good about in terms of
offense. San Jose only generated 7 shots in that opening period, to Minnesota's
10.
Kevin Labanc didn't help matters by taking a pair of minor
penalties in the period. The Sharks penalty killers continued their stellar
play by denying the Wild from adding to their lead, but it was also time taken
away from San Jose and an opportunity to try and pot the equalizer.
Calen Addison took a holding penalty at 2: 33 of the 3rd period to setup the
2nd Sharks power play of the game. A head shaking moment would follow when Erik
Karlsson tripped while back-skating with the puck along the Minnesota blueline.
The Wild pounced on the puck and skated up 2-on-0 before burying the
short-handed chance. Connor Dewar stuffed a Mason Shaw feed past Reimer as the
two exchanged the puck with each other on their romp up the ice.
The
Sharks finally got to goaltender Filip Gustavsson 13:56 into the final frame
when Steven Lorentz took a couple of whacks at the puck before lifting it home
for his 2nd goal of the season. Erik Karlsson fired the puck on net from the
point and Lorentz gobbled up the rebound before converting.
Nico Sturm
tied the game just under 2 minutes later when he snapped a shot from the right
side that beat Gustavsson. Sturm's shot went through Jon Merrill's skates near
the up top, which may have screened Gustavsson's vision.
Joseph Cramarossa took his second minor penalty of
the game after roughing on Matt Benning with 3:04 left in regulation, but the
Sharks could not convert on the power play.
The overtime period
favored the Sharks even though the shot counter reported 3 shots for each team.
Tomas Hertl rang a shot off the crossbar, denying San Jose from evading the
shootout where they were unsuccessful 3 times this season.
San Jose
finally found a way to beat an opponent in the skills competition, where
Labanc, Nick Bonino and Alexander Barabanov pushed pucks past Gustavsson.
Kaprizov scored in the 2nd round, but Bonino extended things with a goal in the
3rd round. Barabanov ended things in the 5th round.
Game Notes:
* Defenseman Radim Simek skated one shift in the game and did not
return. There was no formal announcement of Simek's injury, but a replay showed
Mason Shaw catching him with an elbow to the head on a hit that went unnoticed
by the on-ice officials. It would be surprising if Shaw escapes any penalty
from the league for the hit.
* Erik Karlsson recorded his 12th assist
this season. He has recorded points in 5 of his last 6 games and 6 of his last
8 games. The defenseman skated 34:12 of ice time on 30 shifts.
* The
game winning shot in the shootout was Alexander Barabanov's first career
opportunity in the shootout.
* Timo Meier led all skaters with 6 shots
on goal. The Sharks are starting to open things up offensively, even though the
goal production on Sunday wasn't an obvious indicator of that.
*
Minnesota applied a more physical approach to dealing with the Sharks. They
out-hit San Jose 22-12 and clearly tried to intimidate the Sharks.
