The Sharks were not happy with their
performance against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, but a quick turnaround
seemed like a tall task against a Boston Bruins club that had an extra day of
rest on the Sharks. San Jose did an about face in performance and attitude,
beating the Bruins 3-1 at SAP Center on Sunday night. Shakir Mukhamadullin,
Maclkin Celebrini and Collin Graf all scored to lead San Jose.
Yaroslav
Askarov made 34 saves to earn his 8th win of the season. His play was elevated
in the 3rd period when they needed him most.
It was retribution for
what Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky called an "immature loss" to the
Sentators. They took Warsofsky's words to heart and played one of their better
games of the season. Nervous energy carried the Sharks at the end of the game,
but a quality approach early helped set the stage for a winning homestand.
Looking to rebound from their error prone loss to Ottawa just over 24
hours earlier, the Sharks used an up-tempo approach to open the game. Boston
obliged them with what amounted to a track meet through the first 20 minutes.
Shakir Mukhamadullin scored his 1st goal of the season to crack the
seal on the score sheet with a shot from the right dot at 15:53. The young
Russian defender snapped a wrist shot that was inadvertently redirected by
Bruins winger Tanner Jeannot. When the puck changed direction, it threw off
Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman for the 1-0 Sharks lead.
San Jose
held a slight 12-10 advantage in shots at the end of the opening period.
Yaroslav Askarov kept the Bruins off the board after David Pastrnak
out a one time chance on net from the left side 9:30 into the middle period.
Askarov had to throw his arm out at Pasternak's waist high shot.
Dmitry Orlov started a sequence that seemed to get the Bruins off kilter and
the Sharks a little motivated, when he leveled Sean Kuraly with a big hip check
at the 11 minute mark of the period. San Jose then raced up ice with the puck
for a scoring chance by Ty Dellandrea. Jonathan Aspirot was forced to trip
Dellandrea to fend off the scoring chance.
On the ensuing power play,
Macklin Celebrini scored his 14th goal of the season with a wicked wrist shot
from the left dot after Typer Toffoli and Orlov moved the puck along the high
perimeter from right to left. Celebrini's shot lifted over Swayman's left
shoulder to give the Sharks the 2-0 lead.
The Sharks had a lengthy 5-on-3 power play advantage
after Hampus Lindholm took a roughing penalty 11 seconds after a second Aspirot
tripping penalty. The Sharks failed to take advantage of the big opportunity,
then William Eklund was called for holding right before the 2-man advantage
expired.
Boston opened the 3rd period in cornered animal mode trailing
by a pair of goals. They hah a glorious chance to score on a pair of chances 4
minutes in but Askarov denied both in short order. Mason Lohrei and Marat
Khusnutdinov but back-to-back point blank shots on net but the Sharks netminder
was up to the task.
They would finally solve Askarov at 10:02 after
the Sharks failed to get the puck out of their own zone. Boston moved the puck
around the perimeter for what felt like an eternity until Davis Pasternak setup
Morgan Geekie for his 17th goal of the season.
Boston pulled Swayman
with 1:20 to play but immediately fumbled the puck in the neutral zone where
Celebrini intercepted it. He moved it to Eklund who carried it up the left side
but missed on the empty net chance. Collin Graf swooped in and put it into the
Bruins net from a tight angle on the right side to cap the scoring. It was
Graf's 3rd goal of the season.
Game Notes: * Defensemen
John Klingberg and Nick Leddy were scratches. Klingberg has struggled this
season and even though he did score on Saturday night, the Sharks power play
needed a jump start. Leddy is still trying to ease back into the lineup after
dealing with an injury.
* Macklin Celebrini recorded a goal and an
assist, extending his point scoring streak to 5 games. He has 4 goals and 4
assists in that span. his 34 points now ranks 2nd in the league behind Nathan
MacKinnon's 37 points.
* Shakir Mukhamadullin had a close call in the
3rd period when a puck rode up on his and caught him in the visor. The on ice
officials immediately blew play dead to focus on the young defenseman who
skated to the bench for some attention by the training staff.
* The
Sharks turned their faceoff issues around, but not after a sluggish start.
After the first period, San Jose had only a 30% win rate. They finished the
game with a 52% rate, winning 30 of 58 draws.
* The Sharks finished
the homestand winning 3 of 4 games. Sunday's win vaulted them to 9th in the
Western Conference, sitting only 5 points from the 2nd ranked Dallas Stars.
Utah sits directly ahead of San Jose having lost one fewer game in regulation.
