San Jose limped into Chicago for the battle of
British Columbia phenoms on Monday night at the United Center. It was the first
match up of the season between B.C. natives Macklin Celebrini and Connor
Bedard, both 1st overall draft picks, but the game evolved to turned into a
Ryan Donato & Ilya Mikhaylev's coming out party as the Blackhawks smashed
the Sharks 6-3 before 20,130 fans.
Both Celebrini and Bedard would
score in the lopsided Blackhawks win, but it was former Sharks forward Donato
and Mikhelev that stole the show. The two Blackhawks combined for 8 points as
San Jose fell for the third time in as many games.
The pre-Olympic
road trip had San Jose all set to gain some traction in the Western Conference
standings, playing bottom dwelling teams like Calgary and Chicago, but it was
the Sharks who have underperformed since coughing up a 3-goal lead to Edmonton
last week.
A tale of two special teams opened the ugly affair in the
Windy City. First the Blackhawks were forced to kill of a Sam Rinzel
interference penalty which the league's top ranked did with ease. A too many
men penalty to the Sharks at 5:34 allowed San Jose to try and match the
Blackhawks.
They didn't. Bedard snapped a Teuvo Teravainen feed past
Yaroslav Askarov from the left corner to put Chicago up 1-0 at the 7:00 minute
mark.
Michael Misa and Alex Wennberg would take hooking and tripping
penalties 4 minutes apart to kill any chance for momentum building in the
period.
The Sharks seemed intent to come out with more energy in the
2nd period, but Chicago countered with a Connor Murphy shot that evaded Askarov
2:14 into the period. William Eklund got a stick in front of Murphy's shot,
altering the trajectory of the shot enough to cross up Askarov who got a piece
of it with his right pad, but it wasn't enough.
Things would go from
bad to worse when former Sharks Ryan Donato undressed Vincent Desharnais with a
toe drag before snapping the puck past Askarov for his 12th of the season at
9:35.
Sam Rinzel scored 61 seconds later after the Shark failed to
clear a puck on a wrap around attempt. Ilya Mikheyev pulled it off the right
wing boards then fed Rinzel between the circles for a 30-foot shot that beat
Askarov to the glove side.
That would be the end of Askarov's night,
having surrendered 4 goals on 10 shots.
Will Smith finally got the Sharks on the board on a
put back chance at 12:05 after Celebrini fired a shot off goaltender Spencer
Knight. The puck kicked over to the left side where Smith was able to quickly
return it into the Blackhawks net.
Rather than build on the goal, the
Sharks allowed Mikheyev to tap a Jason Dickinson feed from the doorstep. Mario
Ferraro tried to play Diskinson's pass with his stick, but missed, allowing
Mikheyev to lay his blade in the crease for the easy 5-1 lead.
Celebrini cut the Blackhawks lead to 3-goals at 15:11 when he gathered a Tyler
Toffoli feed then released a shot from the slot, beating Knight for his 28th
goal of the season.
Shakir Mukhamadullin gave the Sharks a glimmer of
hope early in the 3rd period when he cut the Blackhawks lead to 5-3 with his
3rd goal of the season.
Bedard would then take a hooking penalty 30
seconds after Mukhamadullin's goal, but the power play couldn't deliver. San
Jose's power play unit was a collective 0-for-4 on the night. Matt Grzelcyk's
tripping penalty was the last chance at making a run, but the pwer play fell
flat. That door would be slammed shut by Donato, who added his 2nd of the night
at 14:41.
Game Notes: * Will Smith extended his point
scoring streak to 5-games. He has 3 goals and 5 assists in that span.
* Philipp Kurashev made his return to Chicago after essentially being let go by
the Blackhawks last season. He recorded an assist on Shakir Mukhamadullin's
goal and was a +1 on 20 shifts and 13:55 of ice time.
* Yaroslav was
chased for the 5th time this season. The Sharks goaltender allowed 4 goals on
10 shots.
* Adam Gaudette's 3-game goal scoring streak came to an end
with the loss.
* Chicago only recorded 17 shots in the game, but they
made good use of them, scoring 6 times. 5 of those came 5-on-5.
