Remind yourself that the last days of the
2024-25 season are about allowing the youngsters to cut their teeth on the NHL.
It's not about wins. Case in point, the Sharks dropped their 8 game in a row in
the all to familiar "blown 3rd period lead" scenario that played itself out yet
again on Saturday night in Ottawa. The Senators overcame a 2-1 deficit, beating
San Jose 5-3 at Canadian Tire Center.
It's simply more of the same.
The Sharks played decent hockey for 40 minutes, then went into lost child mode,
surrendering 4 goals in the final 20 minutes to drop to 15-37-9.
The
Sharks controlled the tempo for much of the opening period and seemed poised to
do some damage when Mathew Highmore was called for holding Klim Kostin.
Rather than score, the Sharks power play bumbled away a goal when
William Eklund lost a puck in the Senators zone. Ridley Greig grabbed it and
started up ice before spotting Shane Pinto out in front of him. Greig made a
perfect lead pass as Sharks defenseman Jake Walman lost an edge, allowing Pinto
to race in on goal and beat Vitek Vanecek for his 12th goal of the season.
San Jose made much better use of the power play in the middle frame.
First a Brady Tkachuk roughing penalty setup a Tyler Toffoli goal 5:17 into the
middle period. Toffoli fired a shot from the left side that deflected off
defenseman Jake Sanderson's skate right at the right post. Sanderson tried
covering off Macklin Celebrini who was parked on that post, but ended up
deflecting into his own net.
A Thomas Chabot holding penalty 3 minutes
after the Toffoli goal set up a goal that was credited to Timothy Liljegren,
but the defenseman's shot from the blueline appeared to be deflected by Fabian
Zetterlund in the slot. Regardless, the Sharks were up by a goal on the
scoreboard.
Like countless times this season, the Sharks carried a
lead into the 3rd period and promptly let it disintegrate. Mario Ferraro helped
by taking a pointless roughing penalty 10 seconds before the previous period
ended.
That meant 110 seconds of power play time to start the 3rd
period for Ottawa. Rookie forward Collin Graf then magnified the issue by
lofting a puck over the glass to give the Senators a lengthy 2-man advantage.
They would use it to start a barrage of goals.
Brady Tkachuk scored on
the power play promptly to tie the game at 3-3.
Tim Stutzle then scored 3 seconds later to give the
Senators the lead they would not relinquish. Ridley Greig sent a long dump in
that wound around the left corner, but when goaltender Vitek Vanecek tried to
skate behind the net to intercept the puck, it hit a stanchion and kicked out
to the front of the net where Stutzle was there to punch it home .
David Perron gave Ottawa a 2-goal lead at 8:31 on a put back chance after
Thomas Chabot fired a shot off Vanecek. Ty Dellandrea was late to cover Perron
who easily deposited his 2nd goal of the season.
A tripping penalty to
Greig allowed the Sharks to score their 3rd power play goal of the night with
1:27 remaining in regulation. Will Smith cracked the double-digit goal count by
finishing a tictac-toe passing sequence starting with a Celebrini feed from the
slot to William Eklund on the right post. Eklund immediately fed the puck
through the crease to Smith on the off-post for the slam dunk goal.
With Vanecek sitting on the bench for an extra attacker, Michael Amadio scored
an empty-net goal to cap the game's scoring.
Game Notes:
* The Sharks have won 6 games in the last three months.
*
Luke Kunin was caught out on a shift and was on the ice for 3:27. The Sharks
somehow prevented the Senators from scoring on the lengthy shift.
*
Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini each recorded a pair of points. Smith has
recorded 13 points in his last 13 games.
* Celebrini is 2nd in points
among active rookies. He trails Lane Hutson by 2 points, and is tied with
Matvei Michkov with 44 points.
* Celebrini and Jake Walman had 5 shots
each in the loss.
