Wrapping up their third 5-game road trip of
the season, the Sharks turned what could have been a great trip into an average
one with their second consecutive loss. After taking the first three games on
their east coast swing, San Jose dropped a 1-0 decision to the New York Rangers
on Friday, then followed it up with a 6-4 loss to the host Columbus Blue
Jackets on Sunday.
Making his third consecutive start, Adin Hill
couldn't maintain the efficiency that helped him to a win on Long Island and a
close 1-0 loss to the Rangers. Hill didn't get much help from his teammates, as
the Blue Jackets capitalized on several mistakes to blow open a tie game in the
3rd period.
The Sharks had every reason to be frustrated with the
opening of the game. They threw everything but the kitchen sink at Columbus
goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, but could not solve him. The Blue Jackets were
out-shot 19-10 in the period, but they cracked the scoresheet first when Adam
Boqvist roofed a shot past Adin Hill at the 16:16 mark.
It looked as
if San Jose would head to the 1st intermission down a goal until Nick Bonino
deposited his 4th goal of the season with just 3 seconds left in the period.
The goal was Bonino's 4th in the last 7 games after failing to record a point
in his first 18 games with San Jose.
Erik Karlsson gave the Sharks a
quick 2-1 lead just 21 seconds into the 2nd period when he scored his 6th goal
of the season. Alexander Barabanov skated the puck up the right wing before
putting on the breaks and dropping the puck back to the blueline where Karlsson
stepped into a shot that beat Merzlikins just below the cross bar.
The
lead was short lived however, as the Blue Jackets tied the game just 32 seconds
later. With the Sharks threatening again in the Columbus zone, Mario Ferraro
tried to shoot the puck from the left point but the puck kicked off of Sean
Kuraly's skate, rebounding back up ice. Kuraly grabbed the puck and carried it
into the Sharks zone and tried to pass to a teammate on the left side, but
Ferraro back skated and tried to block the shot, but he ended up deflecting it
between Hill's pads for a 2-2 tie.
Brent Burns helped San Jose reclaim
the lead at 8:44 with a blast that weaved through traffic and slipped between
Merzlinkin's pads for his 3rd tally of the season.
Cole Sillinger
re-tied the game with 2:11 remaining in the period. Once again Ferraro bounced
a puck off a Blue Jacket defender, but time it was Sillinger who beat the
Sharks defender to the puck before racing up ice and snapping a shot past Hill.
Columbus grabbed the lead for good 1:57 into the 3rd period when Max
Domi chipped a puck up the ice to Jack Roslovic on the left wing. The sharks
forward skated past three Shark defenders before cutting across the top of the
crease and slipping the puck home for his 4th goal of the season.
Boqvist made it a 5-3 lead at 5:34 when the Blue
Jackets forced a turnover in the defensive zone then carried it up ice before
weaving a series of passes that finished in the Sharks net.
Tomas
Hertl made it a 1-goal lead midway through the period, but the Sharks would get
no closer. Alexander Texier added empty net goal to cap the gam'e scoring.
Game Notes: * Rudolfs Balcers was injured in the loss
to the Rangers on Friday night, and was a scratch on Sunday. Noah Gregor was
moved up to the top line to fill his spot. Andrew Cogliano returned to the
lineup after missing 3 games to address a personal matter.
* Logan
Couture had a rough night, finishing the game with a -4 plus/minus rating.
* San Jose missed out on an opportunity to grab control of the game
early. The Sharks put a game's worth of shots on net in that opening period,
but only capitalized as the period was expiring.
* It was evident that
the Sharks ran out of gas, as they could only muster 5 shots in the that
crucial 3rd period.
* The Sharks were 36 of 73 in the faceoff circle
(49%), but they had to battle back from losing the first 7 faceoffs of the
game.