San Jose shook off the thumping they took from
the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday with a rebound win over the Columbus Blue
Jackets at SAP Center on Tuesday night. Alex Nedeljkovic made his first start
since December 18th and responded with a 34 save performance to lead the Sharks
to a 5-2 win. San Jose had to fend off a determined Blue Jackets team who
pulled to within a goal with 4 minutes to play.
A pair of empty net
goals distorted how close this game was. After a Zach Ostapchuk breakaway goal
with 4:44 to play, San Jose looked as if they would coast home, but Sean
Monahan goal less than a minute later made this one a nail biter.
Columbus opened the game with a more urgent approach after blowing a 4-1 lead
in their last game. Their up tempo energy kept the puck pinned in the Sharks
zone for a good part of the first 7 minutes of the game. A Damon Severson
interference penalty shook up the Blue Jackets flow of things which allowed San
Jose the opportunity to find their legs.
A tripping penalty on Ty
Dellandrea at 15:20 put the Sharks in a pickle late in the period, but the
penalty killers did their job.
It looked as if the game would reach
the fist intermission scoreless until Alex Wennberg hit Pavol Regenda with a
pass as the young Slovakian raced passed past Zach Werenski before skating on
goaltender Jet Greaves and lifting a shot over his glove hand.
Zach
Acton-Reese was whistled for tripping 3:18 into the 2nd period, putting the
Sharks on their 2nd man advantage of the evening. William Eklund just missed on
a slam dunk chance off an Alexander Wennberg feed on the power play. Wennberg
would not miss on the next chance when he walked the puck out of the left
corner and sent a backhand chance through traffic from the slot past Greaves
for his 8 goal of the season.
Denton Mateychuk was called for tripping
late in the 2nd period, which sent Ty Dellandrea crashing into the net. The
Sharks forward had to be helped off the ice. Boon Jenner would then high stick
Macklin Celebrini with 34 second left in Mateychuk's penalty.
The
Sharks would whiff on the big opportunity as the Blue Jackets were able to
clear the puck multiple times. Collin Graf had the best scoring chance but
Greaves would deny him.
Columbus flipped the momentum late in the
period with two big events.
First Zach Werenski beat Nedeljkovic with
44.7 seconds left in the period, then Mathieu Olivier caught Ryan Reaves with a
big left hand, knocking out the Sharks enforcer on the ensuing faceoff.
Werenski received a Dmitri Voronkov feed then sent a
wrist shot from the right dot past Nedeljkovic's blocker to cut the Sharks lead
to 2-1.
Barclay Goodrow didn't help the cause by taking a slashing
penalty 2:20 into the 3rd period to setup Columbus with their 3rd power play of
the game. San Jose would kill the penalty but it was a trend the Sharks needed
to avoid.
Ostapchuk scored after beating Mateychuk to the puck in a
rink long race up ice. Monahan responded to make it a 1-goal game again, but
the empty net would do in the Blue Jackets once and for all.
Former
Shark and now Columbus head coach Dean Evason pulled Greaves with just under 3
minutes to play, but Mario Ferraro immediately scored an empty net goal to push
the sharks lead back to 2-goals.
Macklin Celebrini extended his
scoring streak to 11 straight games with his own empty netter to cap the
scoring.
Game Notes: * The Sharks moved defensemen John
Klingberg and Shakir Mukhamadullin to injured reserve. They recalled forward
Patrick Giles.
* The Sharks fathers and mentors were in attendance as
part of the annual team trip that happens on Wednesday when the team heads to
Los Angeles to play the Kings.
* Pavol Regenda followed up his hat
trick on Saturday by scoring the game's 1st goal. Regenda has scored 6 goals in
his 5 NHL games for San Jose this season. The only game he hasn't scored in was
the Sharks shootout win over Minnesota on New Year's Eve. That was Regenda's
first game back after being recalled for the second time this season.
* Ty Dellandrea carried a puck hard to the net with just under 5 minutes left
in the 2nd period but was tripped. His momentum carried him into the Columbus
goal, slamming his right leg on the pipe. He had to be helped off the ice. He
would not return.
* With Dellandrea's status unknown, the Sharks
already have 5 players on the injured reserve: Vincent Desharnais, Will Smith,
Philipp Kurashev, Shakir Mukhamadullin and John Klingberg. Desharnais is
skating. Smith and Kurashev are expected to be back before the Olympic break
starts on February 6th.
