The Sharks hit the road for the first of 5
game away from SAP Center on Tuesday night with a stop in Vancouver. The
wilting Canucks put up a fight for a minute then fell to a quicker Sharks
roster that is fighting to stay in the Western Conference playoff race with San
Jose taking the 5-2 decision.
Macklin Celebrini had a 4-point night to
lead San Jose who wins consecutive games for the first time since January 10th.
The Sharks were forced to play comeback 75 seconds into the game. Tom
Willander scored his 3 goal of the season on a 4-on-4 situation after Dmitry
Orlov and Connor Garland were sent off for roughing 44 seconds into the game.
Willander gathered a Elias Pettersson in the high slot then threw the puck on
net, beating Yaroslav Askarov for the brief 1-0 lead.
That lead would
be short lived when Macklin Celebrini potted his 27th goal of the season 36
seconds after Willander's goal. Celebrini sent a one-time chance past Canucks
goaltender Kevin Lankinen from the high slot. Will Smith setup the scoring
chance with a feed form the left side.
Celebrini helped setup the next
goal which came at 4:43. The Sharks forward intercepted a pass at the Canucks
blueline before circling to the left wing board. He would send the puck to
William Eklund who immediately dished it to Adam Gaudette near the inside of
the left circle for a quick shot that beat Lankinen.
Tyler Toffoli
would chase Lankinen with the Sharks 6th shot of the period at 5:55, converting
his 15th goal of the season. Toffoli sent a third one-time chance from the slot
into the goal after Alexander Wennberg setup the shot from the left corner.
Vancouver inserted Nikita Tolopilo in net, and the Fin helped keep the
Sharks off the board the remainder of the period by stopping all 9 shots he
faced in the frame.
The Canucks came out with the hard press on, pinning
the Sharks in their own end for much of the first quarter of the period.
Things turned on Vancouver when Teddy Blueger was whistled for holding
at 8:01. The Sharks power play went to work and Smith converted his 15 of the
season with an unimpeded shot from the bottom of the left circle. Smith had all
day to pick a spot to shoot at. He chose the upper left corner of the net that
he found by lifting it past Tolopilo.
The Canucks didn't make things
any easier for themselves when Evander Kane took a roughing penalty on top of a
fighting major late in the period, then Pettersson was called for high sticking
7 seconds later.
That allowed the Sharks to carry ample 5-on-3 power
play time, which they put to good use. John Klingberg snapped a shot from the
high slot that found twine for the defenseman's 10 goal of the season.
A Will Smith tripping penalty put the Canucks on the power play at 7:42 of the
frame. Filip Hronek joined the long blast club, pumping a shot from the high
slot to ake it a 5-2 game.
Game Notes: * Barclay
Goodrow played in his 700th NHL game.
* It was multi-point night.
Macklin Celebrini had a 4-point night (1 goal, 3 assists), Will Smith added 3
points (1 goal, 2 assists), John Klingberg (1 goal, 1 assist) and Sam Dickinson
(2 assists) each had 2-point nights.
* Former Canuck Kiefer Sherwood
traveled with the Sharks and was in the attendance on Tuesday night. He
continues to nurse and injury but the Sharks expect to see him in the lineup on
the trip.
* Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin also traveled with the
team.
* The Sharks moved to 3-0 this season against the Canucks. They
will wrap up the season series in San Jose on April 11th in the Sharks regular
season home finale.
