After getting pasted by the Buffalo Sabres on
Tuesday, the Sharks needed a rebound performance as they hit the 2nd leg of
their current 5-game road trip. They got exactly that as San Jose received
scoring from 4 different forwards. Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 38 saves to
earn his 12th win of the season.
More importantly, it helped the
Sharks keep pace with the teams directly ahead of them in the standings. The
win also snapped Boston's 13-game home ice win streak.
Michael Misa
flashed the skill that made him the 2nd overall pick last summer, when he
teamed up with William Eklund to score his 6th goal of the season at 5:57 of
the opening period. Misa traded passes with Eklund as the two raced on Bruins
goaltender Jeremy Swayman, before the Sharks 19-year-old slipped the puck into
the empty net.
John Klingberg was called for holding 2 minutes later,
but Nedeljkovic and the Sharks defense snuffed out the Bruins power play
opportunity.
Adam Gaudette narrowly missed extending the Sharks lead
midway through the period when he split two defenders as he skated between the
circles, but Swayman denied the Sharks forward.
Boston out-shot the
Sharks 14-7 in the period and held a 73% advantage from the faceoff circle in
the opening 20 minutes, but the Sharks held the 1-0 lead heading to the 1st
intermission.
Tyler Toffoli pushed the Sharks lead to 2-0 at 14:15
of the middle period after Mason Lohrei was sent off for high sticking Will
Smith. Toffoli was credited with the tally after a Macklin Celebrini shot hi
him in the chest and redirected past Swayman for his 17th of the season.
San Jose was forced to kill a penalty 3 minutes into the 3rd period
when Barclay Goodrow was called for a ticky-tack hook. The Sharks responded
with a short-handed goal when Alex Wennberg pushed a puck up ice to Colin Graf,
who raced up ice and lifted a shot over Swayman for his 17th goal of the
season.
The goal was Graf's second goal against the Bruins this
season. He also scored in a Sharks 3-1 win back in November.
William
Eklund scored what may be the goal of the year for San Jose at 8:20. The Sharks
forward Elias Lindholm on the right side before chipping a shot off Swayman.
The goaltender got a piece of the shot, but it flipped up in the air where
Eklund swatted it out of the air as he was falling away from the net as he cut
across the crease.
Fraser Minten ruined Nedeljkovic's shutout bid with
a shot from the slot 10 seconds after Eklund's goal. The shot seemed benign but
Nedeljkovi either didn't see it or mistimed his attempt on it.
David
Pasternak scored on a wrist shot with 53 seconds left in the contest, but the
game was long decided.
Things got testy with 10 seconds left in
regulation when Charlie McAvoy caught Kiefer Sherwood with a shoulder to the
Shark forward's head. Sherwood tried to go after McAvoy who was already being
shuttled to the penalty box. He, Vincent Desharnais and Pasternak were assessed
10-minute misconduct penalties just to cool everyone's jets.
Game
Notes: * Michael Misa became the youngest Shark to score against
the Boston Bruins, beating former sharks and Bruins head coach Marco Sturm.
* With his assist on Tyler Toffoli's goal, Macklin Celebrini extended
his point-scoring streak to 7 games. The forward has 5 goals and 5 assist in
that span.
* Mario Ferraro, Tyler Toffoli and Alex Wennberg have
recorded points in consecutive games.
* The Sharks hopped past Seattle
and Los Angeles in the Western Conference and Pacific Division standings for
the final wild card spot. Seattle was scheduled to play Colorado later on
Thursday.
* The Sharks signed goaltender Kyle Chauvette to serve as an
emergency backup after Yaroslav Askarov was not able to go due to a lower body
issue that he aggravated in Buffalo on Tuesday.
