The Battle of the Basement, or what the NHL is
calling the Teen Titans Match-up, finally happened at SAP Center on Thursday
night. The last two 1st overall draft picks in Connor Bedard and Macklin
Celebrini finally squared off against each other. As it turned out, the game
turned into a rookie showcase beyond the two super stars. Celebrini finished
with the win as San Jose knocked off the Blackhawks 4-2.
Celebrini
missed the first two Sharks games against the Blackhawks this season as he
dealt with the hip issue that held him out of 10 of the Sharks first 11 games
this season. Bedard entered play with 52 points on 17 goals and 35 assists.
Celebrini countered with his 48 points on 20 goals and 29 assists.
Bedard missed half the 3rd period after he earned a 10 minute misconduct for
abuse of an official.
Both are natives of British Columbia, and grew
up competing against each other, but it was the first NHL game between the two.
Will Smith staked the Sharks to a 1-0 lead 3:48 into the contest after
ripping a long shot from the high slot. William Eklund got the puck into the
Blackhawks zone after a strong play in the neutral zone. Macklin Celebrini
moved it to the top of the right circle before dropping it back to Smith for
the blast that beat goaltender Spencer Knight.
Collin Graf scored the
3rd goal of his young career at the midway point of the period. Alexander
Wennberg looped the puck out of the right corner before retracing his steps
toward the corner then flipped the puck to the slot where Graf uncorked a shot
that beat Knight to the upper left corner.
Noah Gregor made his Sharks
return, skating on the 4th line with Barclay Goodrow and Patrick Giles.
Gregor's first act as a Shark was to take a holding penalty with just under 2
minutes remaining in the period.
Frank Nazar scored 10 seconds into
the 2nd period, essentially attacking with a man-advantage as Gregor had just
stepped out of the penalty box. Wyatt Kaiser fed Nazar from the blueline,
allowing Nazar to skate in from the right side beating Alexandar Georgiev to
make it a 2-1 game.
Jason Dickinson was sent off for cross checking at
8:27 of the middle frame. The centerman escaped a more severe penalty as the
stick caught Celebrini in the side of the head.
What's more important
is the Sharks made the Blackhawks pay for the penalty. Graf bagged his 2nd of
the game with 10 seconds to spare in the man-advantage when he redirected a
Smith feed from the top of the crease. Smith actually tried shooting, but he
heeled it. Graf spotted the puck and was able to get a stick on it to redirect
it past Knight.
Barclay Goodrow tried to settle the score with
Dickinson by dropping the glove with the centerman. The bigger Blackhawk had
the reach edge to Goodrow's dismay.
A defensive lapse by Tyler Toffoli allowed Ilya
Mikayev put a puck past Georgiev at 13:18 to make it a 3-2 Sharks lead. The
Sharks centerman failed to see Mikhayev slip toward the net as the puck was
played up high.
Bedard took himself out of the remainder of the 3rd
period at the 9:10 mark when he drew his misconduct penalty. The infraction was
likely attributed to a non-call that Bedard felt should have been assessed to
the Mario Ferraro for taking down the young Blackhawks superstar.
The
Sharks were able to protect their net for that final 10 minutes, including the
last 2 minutes when Chicago pulled Knight.
Tyler Toffoli sealed the
win for San Jose with an empty net goal with 33 seconds remaining in the
contest. The goal was his 25th of the season.
Game Notes:
* 3 of Will Smith's 13 goals this season have come against the
Blackhawks. He scored his first 2 NHL goals against Chicago on Halloween last
fall.
* It should also be no surprise that the two teams have the
worst goal differentials in the entire league. San Jose has the distinction of
holding a -73 goal differential through 67 games. The Hawks have a better (but
still bad) -51 differential.
* Tyler Toffoli's empty net goal snapped
a goal scoring streak in which the last 7 goals scored by the Sharks had all
come from rookies.
* From NHL Public Relations: Will Smith became the
5th rookie in Sharks history to record at least 10 multi-point games in a
season, joining Pat Falloon (18 GP in 1991-92), Macklin Celebrini (13 GP in
2024-25), Logan Couture (11 GP in 2010-11) and Rob Gaudreau (10 in 1992-93).
* The victory was the first for the Sharks on home ice since January
27th.
