Since entering the NHL in 2017 the Vegas
Golden Knights have gone 30-6-5 against the Sharks in the regular season. Their
entry coincided with the end of the Sharks long playoff run in the NHL so there
is a reason Vegas has had such an advantage. This season, Vegas already held a
3-0 record entering play on Sunday. The Golden Knights can increment all those
totals by another win after they handed San Jose another lop-sided beat defeat
at SAP Center.
Perhaps it's the bigger bodied Vegas lineup, or the
fact that that lineup is built to compete for a Stanley Cup now. Whatever the
reason, the Sharks still haven't figured out how to solve Vegas.
San
Jose was outscored 2-1 in the opening period, then 3-1 in the middle frame to
fall out of any competitive position in the contest and 2-0 in the 3rd period.
Vegas used San Jose to pad personal stats in a 7-2 drubbing.
Jack
Eichel staked the Golden Knights the 1st period lead by taking a pair of hacks
at the puck after Ivan Barbashev put a shot on Yaroslav Askarov 7 minutes into
the game. The Golden Knights 2nd leading goal scorer was parked on the left
side when the puck kicked over to him. The Sharks defense was ill advised to
leave Eichel unguarded on the play.
Collin Graf knotted the game at
1-1 134 seconds later on a shot from the inside of the left circle that
squirted through traffic and evaded Golden Knights goaltender Carl Lindbom. The
goal was Graf's 12th of the season.
Timothy Liljegren was called for a
tripping penalty at 9:54, which turned out to bite the Sharks. Pavel Dorofeyev
tapped home a Tomas Hertl feed on the power play at 10:57 to help Vegas reclaim
the lead.
Vegas had a 13-7 edge in shots in the opening period, but
more importantly they held the 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
San Jose
carried a brief power play into the 2nd period, but could not utilize the
advantage to generate any scoring. The two teams played a dump and chase
variation of paddy cake for the first 10 minutes of the period until Vegas
figured a way to isolate Eichel once again.
The forward got lost on
the left side as the Sharks over-pursued the puck on the off wing. Mark Stone
found Eichel lurking at the left dot and hit him with a rink wide pass off the
right wing boards. Eichel took two steps toward the Sharks net before snapping
a shot past Askarov for the 3-1 lead.
Vegas was gifted a power play at 9:33 when Sam
Dickinson was called for slashing after his one-handed tap of Jeremy Lauzon's
stick. The Golden Knights used the opportunity to score their 2nd power play
goal of the game to make it a 4-1 game. Former Sharks Tomas Hertl was credited
with the goal for his 17th of the season.
Zach Whitecloud scored his
2nd goal of the season 2 minutes and change later to make it a 5-goal lead.
Eklund was sent off for cross checking Whitecloud at 13:05, but
referees Jake Brenk and Jordan Samuels-Thomas ignored the retaliation by Noah
Hanifin which came via a cross check to the Shark forwards face.
Alexander Wennberg potted his 10th goal of the season with 3:31 remaining in
the period, whipping home a Liljegren feed as the two skated toward Lindbom.
Shea Theodore socred an empty netter at 17:03 as Ryan Warsofsky tried
to give the sellout crowd anything to cheer about.
If there were any
Hertl fans in attendance, they had plenty to cheer for. The former Shark
forward bagged his 18th goal of the season and his 5th point of the game at
18:59 to cap the game's scoring.
Game Notes: * The
Sharks activated defenseman John Klingberg off the injured reserve.
*
Head coach Ryan Warsofsky indicated that Will Smith will travel with the team
when they hit the road for a 4-game east coast trip which begins on Thursday.
Smith missed 12 games since suffering a shoulder injury against Pittsburgh on
December 13th.
* Michael Misa was originally credited with the
secondary assist on Collin Graf's goal, which would have been the rookie's
first NHL point since he scored his 1st NHL goal on October 26th. The assist
was later retracted . Misa last played in teal on November 1st before suffering
an injury that sidelined him for 14 games, then his assignment to Team Canada
for the World Junior Championships.
* Vegas Golden Knights rookie
goaltender Jeremy Lindbom has recorded only 2 wins this season. Both have come
against San Jose.
* Macklin Celebrini's 13-game scoring streak came to
an end.
