Photo courtesy of San Jose Sharks Twitter. Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson celebrate a goal on January 18th against the Dallas Stars.
By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)
SAN JOSE – Off of a incredible second period come back the Sharks rode that into a victory over the Dallas Stars by a final of 5-3.
Heading into this game the season series between these two teams was at a draw as both teams had beaten each other once.
This game also involved two of the best penalty killing teams in the league with Dallas ranked fifth and San Jose ranked third in the league.
The Sharks got off to a slow start in this one as they only had one shot in the first six minutes of the period.
On the other hand Dallas moved the puck efficiently and had the Sharks chasing the play.
With the momentum on their side Dallas pushed for a goal and Ty Dellandrea delivered at the 13:17 mark of the period.
Streaking down the right wing boards Dellandrea fired a shot towards the net that beat Reimer on the glove side scoring his fifth goal on the year.
Mario Ferraro took a penalty a little bit later for holding but the PK unit for the Sharks killed it off.
After the kill San Jose gained some momentum and Mikey Eyssimont came close to tying the game as he rang one off the crossbar.
The end of the first definitely ended a lot better for the Sharks than the beginning but they were unable to tie the game heading into the intermission down one.
The shots at the end of the period favored Dallas 10-6.
San Jose did have to start off the second on the PK but Jason Robertson towards the end of the power play took a penalty making it a four-on-four.
Once San Jose did get on the power play they weren’t able to muster any good looks as the Dallas’s PK unit killed off the opportunity.
With the Sharks hemmed in their own end Colin Miller circled the net and fed a pass out front to Jason Robertson who fired it past Reimer to score his 30th goal of the season.
Dallas did not stop the onslaught at the beginning of the second and less than five minutes after Robertson’s goal Radek Faska cashed in as well.
It was a sort of broken play on the Faska’s fourth goal of the season as he tried to feed his teammate but, the the shot instead went in off of a Shark.
The energy was definitely sucked out of the building after the Star’s quick start to the period.
San Jose did not give up though as Noah Gregor after keeping the puck in the Stars end got the puck to Steven Lorentz in the slot who scored.
With the score now 3-1 the Sharks smelt blood in the water and pushed for more.
As the Dallas defense backed up Alexander Barabonov rushed into the zone and wrapped a pass around the net to a waiting Nick Bonino who scored his seventh goal of the campaign.
The crowd was now into it and San Jose drew a penalty putting themselves in the perfect spot to tie the game.
Timo Meier did just that on the opportunity as similar to Faska’s goal he tried to feed it to a teammate but instead got a lucky bounce.
The goal sent the now already fired up crowd into a frenzy and the Sharks responded in kind by keeping the chances up.
That did end up being all the scoring in the period though with the shots still favoring Dallas at 20-18.
The third did get off to a tough start for San Jose as they had to kill off a tripping penalty taken late in the second by them.
The Shark’s PK once again showed why their a top five unit in the league though as they killed off another PP.
After the PK both teams exchanged chances back and forth as both goalies made big saves.
At the 9:19 mark of the third Nick Bonino found Erik Karlsson creeping in backdoor and fead the defenseman. Karlsson then proceeded to make a difficult shot look effortless as he scored his 15th goal of the season.
The lead now 4-3 the Sharks looked to hold on to their lead as they trapped it up.
Dallas pulled their goalie to try to tie it but Logan Couture got the puck and fired it into the empty cage to end the game at 5-3.
The shots at the end of the game favored the Stars at 36-28.
The three stars of the game were: 1st: Erik Karlsson 2nd: Nick Bonino 3rd: Miro Heiskanen
With the victory over Dallas Reimer got the 200th win of his NHL career.
“I think we can be really proud of this win tonight and it was a solid effort,” Meier said after the game.
The Sharks next game will on Saturday and also kicks off a long road stand for the team were they will do battle with Columbus.
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