The Sharks hit the road for the first of 41 road games on Friday night. Let's hope the other 40 go better than the 6-3 thrashing they took from the host Utah Mammoth at the Delta Center. Utah rolled on a Nick Schmaltz hat-trick en route to a 6-3 throttling of the Sharks.

This one was tough to explain given the opponent, the Sharks poor showing in the previous game and the two days rest they had between that 5-1 stinker to Carolina and Friday night's thrashing at the hands of the Mammoth. The Sharks were out-worked in the 1st period, made a back-breaking mistake in the 2nd, then were blitzed in the 3rd period.

Utah hasn't exactly lit it up this season, so it was a team that San Jose could have competed against. They limited their fight to a middle period that saw some promise, but it's a 60 minute game.

The Sharks were backed into a corner early as Utah simply moved to the puck better. San Jose withstood the onslaught until Nick Leddy and Dmitry Orlov took penalties exactly 60 seconds apart.

Utah used the 2-man advantage well, converting when Schmaltz setup near the bottom of the right circle then one-timed a Logan Cooley feed from the right corner past Yaroslav Askarov. It was the first of 4 points that Schmaltz would record in the contest.

A San Jose turnover bit them 4 minutes later when Clayton Keller stripped Collin Graf in the left corner and setup Schmaltz for a one-time chance from the low slot. Askarov was dead to rights on the quick shot that evaded him for Schmaltz 2nd goal of the game.

Things only got better the remainder of the period in that Utah didn't put anything else past Askarov. It wasn't for trying. The Mammoth held an 11-7 shot advantage and a 27-11 shot attempts advantage. Simply put, it was an ugly period for a Sharks team that had the last two days off to address their poor play against Carolina.

San Jose hit the smelling salts at the 1st intermission and snapped out of their funk in the 2nd period.

A Jack McBain interference penalty at 4:33 helped setup the Sharks 1st goal of the night. Will Smith fired a shot on net from the blueline that Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka knocked down but didn't control. Tyler Toffoli swooped in near the left post, punching home the rebound for the power play goal.

Jeff Skinner scored a how do you do goal 1:50 later after he threw the puck to the front of the net form the left corner. The puck hit defenseman Ian Cole up high before deflecting into his own net for Skinner's 3rd of the season.

Askarov literally handed the Mammoth a goal at 16:09 when he tried to play a wrap-around attempt behind his own net. He mishandled it, serving up to Liam O'Brian who gathered it and tucked it into the unsupervised net for his 1st and easiest goal of the season.

Utah added some buffer just 54 seconds into the 3rd period when Keller gathered a puck behind the Sharks net after newcomer Vincent Iorio's weak clearing attempt landed on his stick. Keller then slid a feed out to Schmaltz out front. Schmaltz positioned himself perfectly between four Shark defenders for the one-time chance that potted the hat trick.

Michael Carcone made it a 5-2 game at 3:25 after the Sharks failed to exit their own zone. Carcone found the puck on his stick as he skated through the top of the right circle. He snapped a quick shot on net that Askarov got a piece of, but it wasn't enough to impede the trajectory toward the back of the net.

Utah used a four pass entry into the Sharks goal, capped by a shot from Keller that beat Askarov for his 1st of the season to make it a 4-goal lead for the Mammoth. The Sharks looked disinterested defensively at the time, which allowed Utah to move the puck at will on the play.

Macklin Celebrini scored his 1st goal of the season on a long blast from the high slot while the Sharks were skating on their 3rd power play of the night. The meaningless goal came with 3 minutes to play and Celebrini just skated back to the bench after scoring, knowing it would not help the Sharks fate.

Game Notes:

* Defenseman Vincent Iorio made his Sharks debut after being claimed off waivers form the Washington Capitals 24 hours earlier. Iorio skated 16 shift, logging 14:26 of ice time and recorded 3 giveaways. The most blatant of which resulted in Schmaltz's 3rd goal of the game.

* The Sharks played their first game with defenseman Timothy Liljegren on the injured list. the blueliner is suffering from an undisclosed lower body injury. John Klingberg is also nursing a lower body injury but was not placed on the IR.

* Logan Cooley and Macklin Celebrini mixed it up in the 3rd period with Cooley agitate the young Shark by sitting on him away from the play. Vincent Desharnais made a half-hearted attempt at defending his teammate, which eventually led to a Sharks power play.

* Sam Dickson received a look on the Sharks 2nd power play unit after Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky had to reconfigure his power play lines with Macklin Celebrini in the penalty box.

* San Jose will have little time to think about Friday's game as they have a quick turnaround back in San Jose where the Pittsburgh Penguins are waiting for them.