Sharks Fall to Bruins 4-3; Win streak ends at four

The Boston Bruins Brad Marchand (63) gets congratulations from teammates after scoring 28 seconds into the first period as the San Jose Sharks Logan Couture (39) skates away at the TD Garden in Boston on Sun Oct 24, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost Sunday by a score of 4-3 to the Bruins in Boston. Bruins goals came from Brad Marchand, Derek Forbort, David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk. Linus Ullmark made 23 saves for the win. Jasper Weatherby, Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier scored for San Jose. Adin Hill made 10 saves on 14 shots before being replaced by James Reimer, who stopped 20 of 20 shots.

The game represented the team’s first loss of the season, and the first two periods were fairly grim. Nonetheless, the fact that the Sharks came back from a three-goal deficit was a positive. After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“I thought that battling back at the end was important. We talked about that in between the second and the third, is trying to get back to a little bit of our identity so we could at least take that into the Nashville game and see what happens in this game.”

Brad Marchand scored for Boston just 28 seconds into the first period. David Pastrnak won the race to the puck below the goal line, and passed it back to Patrice Bergeron, also by the goal line. Bergeron’s pass found Marchand arriving on the doorstep for a quick shot over Hill’s glove.

Derek Forbort made it 2-0 at 3:18 with a shot from the point. Assists went to Marchand and Connor Clifton.

Pastrnak scored Boston’s third of the game at 16:12 on the power play. A pass from Bergeron came smoothly across the ice and Pastrnak buried it from the face-off dot.

Jasper Weatherby scored the Sharks’ first of the game at 16:44 of the period. Weatherby and Jonah Gadjovich played some catch as they skated into the zone, before Weatherby took the shot and beat Ullmark on the short side. Assists went to Gadjovich and Andrew Cogliano.

Jake DeBrusk scored the only goal of the second period at 5:41. Oskar Steen went to dump the puck in but it hit DeBrusk instead. DeBrusk followed the puck into the zone and got past Radim Simek before taking a shot that went by Hill on the glove side. Assists went to Steen and Forbort.

Jacob Middleton and Trent Frederic fought three minutes into the third period.

Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks at 13:19 of the third, deflecting Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s shot from the blue line. Assists went to Vlasic and Alexander Barabanov.

Timo Meier scored at 15:08 to bring the Sharks within one. Meier deflected Couture’s shot from the point, knocking the shot down and under Ullmark. Assists went to Couture and Brent Burns.

The shots per period were very close except for the second, when Boston out-shot San Jose 11-5. The game total was 34-26 Bruins. In the face-off circle, the Bruins won 52% of the draws. The Sharks penalty kill gave up one goal and five shots. The Bruins penalty kill allowed five shots, all in the first period.

William Eklund and Lane Pederson were out of the line-up, replaced by Alexander Barabanov and Jonah Gadjovich, both making their season debuts. No injuries were mentioned.

The Sharks next play on Tuesday in Nashville against the Predators at 5:30 PM PT.

Sharks Lose 4-1, Another Tough Loss to Bruins

Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 4-1 to the Bruins in Boston Tuesday. Boston goals came from David Krejci, Charlie McAvoy, Jake DeBrusk and Brad Marchand. Bruins goaltender Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves in the win. Logan Couture scored the only Sharks goal, while goaltender Martin Jones made 28 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said:

I thought the first ten minutes of the second, we started to get some legs and grab some momentum. I liked our game. Then, you know, within a minute and a half we’re down 3-1. Couple mistakes, you know, but that’s what a good team does to you. And I think the game ran away from us from there.

Gustav Nyquist made his debut as a Shark since being acquired at the trade deadline. He had one shot on goal in 17:21 of ice time, skating on Joe Thornton’s line.

After the game, DeBoer said of Nyquist: “I liked him. I liked everything about him, he’s a good hockey player, he’s going to help us.” As for the adjustment period, DeBoer is not concerned about that: “No issue with that. This guy’s been well coached and he’s a smart player. I was really impressed with what he did tonight and the potential where he fits for us going forward.”

Five minutes into the second period, Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson fell and went to the dressing room with what appeared to be a lower body injury. He was back on the ice before long. He skated four shifts in the second half of the period but did not return for the third. After the game, there was no specific information available as to the nature or severity of his injury.

Logan Couture gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 12:47 of the first on the team’s first power play. Matt Grzelcyk was called for hooking Melker Karlsson as Karlsson cut to the net. Midway through the power play, Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl were below the goal line trying to get the puck away from the Bruins’ defense. The puck bounced behind Hertl and up above the goal line unexpectedly. Zdeno Chara and Couture scrambled for it and it ended up behind Jaroslav Halak.

The Bruins responded with their own power play goal at 14:39. It was a double minor after Timo Meier was called for high-sticking and drawing blood to Jake DeBrusk. The Bruins dd not use all four minutes. They scored just nine seconds in. Brad Marchand made a backhand pass to the blue line for Torey Krug to tap it back down to David Krejci in the faceoff circle. Krejci’s quick shot went right through Martin Jones. Assists went to Krug and Marchand.

At the end of the first period, Boston was outshooting the Sharks 16-8 and had won 68% of the faceoffs.

Charlie McAvoy gave the Bruins the lead at 9:09 of the second. Marchand brought the puck over the line and then passed it before he hit the faceoff circle. McAvoy was the recipient of the pass and he took the shot from the slot. Assists went to Marchand and Danton Heinen.

Boston struck again fewer than 40 seconds later. Jake DeBrusk, part of a three-on-one attack by the Bruins, touched the puck into the net with a backhand while he changed direction. The three had traded four passes and Jones had made a good attempt to keep up with all of them but he was outnumbered. Assists went to Krejci and Marcus Johansson.

Micheal Haley went down awkwardly against the boards in that same span but he went to the bench instead of the room.

Boston did not let up and Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal at 12:28 of the second. The Sharks were on a power play after Sean Kuraly went to the box for tripping Joe Thornton. The penalty only had a second left when Marchand took the puck from the neutral zone, around Erik Karlsson, and down to the net to score. Assists went to Patrice Bergeron and Brandon Carlo.

The Bruins outshot the Sharks in the second period as well, again 2-1 with a count of 8-4 Bruins. San Jose made some progress in the faceoff department but still trailed Boston there as everywhere else in the game.

Evander Kane and Chara came to blows early in the third period after exchanging hits during play. Kane got the worst of those hits, a shoulder to the head. They went to the box for fighting but nothing was made of Chara’s shoulder in Kane’s face. Rather, Kane got two extra minutes for instigating.

Almost as soon as play resumed, Bruins forward Noel Acciari took a puck to the face from Brent Burns. Before play resumed after that, Evander Kane was excused from the game for misconduct in the box. As soon as the puck dropped, Micheal Haley invited David Backes to fight and they went to the box.

Five minutes had not yet elapsed in the third period. The game came back to some degree of order for the rest of the period. Pete DeBoer pulled Martin Jones for an extra skater with almost four minutes left in the game and a three goal deficit. The Bruins did not score into that empty net, and Jones went back into the net for the final minute.

The Sharks will next play back in San Jose on Friday at 7:30 PM PT against the Colorado Avalanche.

Sharks Fall to Bruins 3-1, Power Play Struggles

Photo credit: San Jose Sharks

By M. Walsh

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Sharks fell to the Boston Bruins 3-1 on Saturday. Boston goals came from Peter Cehlarik, Jake DeBrusk, and Danton Heinen. Bruins goaltender Anton Khudobin made 36 saves for the win, while Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell made 17 saves. The lone Sharks goal came from Timo Meier.

The Sharks played well in many short bursts, but they could not generate second chances or sustain pressure for very long. After the game, Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said:

We’ve got to be a little bit harder around the net. We had some good chances tonight, it’s just we’re one play off, it feels. You come back to the shift and it’s one play, whether it’s in your d-zone or the neutral zone or the o-zone. It just feels like it’s one play right now.

In Saturday’s loss, the Sharks extended their power-play goal drought to 22. Perhaps more improbable, they saw a fourth consecutive coach’s challenge go against them. Brent Burns continues to shoot without scoring. He now leads the Sharks with 75 shots this season.

Just 1:02 in, the Sharks seemed to have ended their 63-minute goalless streak. Joe Thornton held the puck briefly near the goal line and then passed it back in front of the Bruins net. Out of a crush of players in front of the goalie, the puck found its way over the line off of Joonas Donskoi. The Bruins challenged it and won the challenge. Instead of ending their scoring drought, the Sharks now had three consecutive goals disallowed.

Undaunted, the Sharks went back to work and did get a goal at 4:50, this time from Meier. Danny O’Regan wrested control of the puck behind the Bruins net and guided it to Meier across the goal mouth. Khudobin could not get across in time to stop it. A secondary assist went to Joel Ward.

Moments later, the Bruins came back with a goal of their own. The puck went over the line after Boston’s Jake DeBrusk slid into Aaron Dell and pushed him into the net. The Sharks challenged the play for goaltender interference. The goal held up and was credited to Peter Cehlarik. DeBrusk got an assist for his trouble. It was the fourth consecutive challenge to go against the Sharks.

Of the decision, Pavelski said: “I don’t know. They say he was tripped in there. He was already kind of going down, I think.”

The first power play of the game went to the Sharks at 8:43. Riley Nash went to the box for tripping Joe Thornton. The Bruins penalty kill was effective. It was so effective that, just as Dell was tapping his stick to signal the end of the penalty, DeBrusk broke away and scored to give Boston the lead. Assists went to Charlie McAvoy and Sean Kuraly.

By the end of the first period, the score was 2-1 Boston, though the Sharks were outshooting the Bruins 17-5.

Near the midpoint of the second, Joe Thornton was called for tripping David Pastrnak. The Sharks penalty kill started well, with Melker Karlsson and Chris Tierney leading a merry chase at Boston’s end. The Bruins got no shots with that man advantage and really had no opportunity to do so.

The next penalties called were offsetting minors at 10:46, an interference call against Zdneo Chara and an embellishment call against Jannik Hansen. The Sharks dominated the four on four play but did not change the score.

As the period came to a close, the Sharks still trailed 2-1, and still led in shots, now 25-14.

Fans in the third period saw the Sharks start slowly. It was near the midpoint of the period before they had their first shot on goal. Their game picked up after that, but so did Boston’s game. At 14:59, Danton Heinen scored his third of the season against the Sharks, catching a well-timed pass from Kevan Miller for a breakaway. Too many Sharks were too deep in the Boston zone to catch him.

The Sharks had another power play in the last two minutes of regulation, but it didn’t make a difference.

The Sharks will have a chance to repair their game on Monday when they host the Anaheim Ducks at 7:30 pm PT.