Sharks Shutout 8-0 by Predators; Eighth loss in ten games for San Jose

The Nashville Predators Michael McCarron (47) gets congratulations from teammates after scoring a first period goal against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center in San Jose on Sat Mar 5, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE- The San Jose Sharks fell 8-0 to the Nashville Predators Saturday night in San Jose. Michael McCarron, Matt Duchene, Roman Josi, Matt Luff, Yakov Trenin and Mikael Granlund scored for Nashville. Juuse Saros made 20 saves for the shutout win. Alex Stalock made 22 saves before being replaced by Zach Sawchenko, who made 6 saves for the Sharks. It was the most goals the Sharks have ever given up in a shutout loss. The Sharks also have also been shutout at home more than any other team this season.

After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“That was the worst one of the year, for sure. I think, you know, regardless of the score, at three-nothing I thought we were actually playing a pretty competitive game. We were playing pretty hard. We only gave up two chances in the first period and I think we only generated one. So it’s a pretty even first period, regardless of the shot clock. I thought the second period, the chances we did have [Saros] made saves or [we] hit a couple posts, hit a crossbar. Once it got four-nothing we got away from our game.”

Before the game, the Sharks expressed their support of Ukraine by displaying the Ukrainian flag on the jumbotron while playing the Ukrainian anthem. It was also “You Can Play” night at the tank, promoting inclusivity in the sport. The Sharks wore rainbow jerseys during warm-ups and they held a ceremonial puck drop from San Jose sled hockey player Zack Nazareno.

Michael McCarron scored the first Nashville goal at 10:43 of the first period, off of a pass from behind the net. Assists went to Philip Tomasino and Date Fabbro.

Matt Duchene made it 2-0 with a shot up the middle from the blue line. That shot made its way through traffic and into the net at 18:30 of the period. Assists went to Roman Josi and Ryan Johansen.

Well past the ten minute mark, the Sharks were still at three shots on goal. By the end of the period, they had only managed five to Nashville’s eleven.

Roman Josi added a third goal for Nashville at 2:43 of the second period. Assists went to Matt Luff and Philip Tomasino.

Matt Luff made it 4-0 in the final minute of the second period, gathering the puck up as it slipped out of a melee in front of the net. Assists went to Tomasino and McCarron.

Duchene scored his second of the night 4:43 into the third period. He skated into the zone seemingly unnoticed by the Sharks defense and scored with a late backhand. Filip Forseberg and Mattias Ekholm got the assists.

Michael McCarron scored his second of the night at 6:07, redirecting a shot from Luff. Assists went to Luff and Josi.

The Sharks replaced Stalock with Sawchenko after that goal.

Yakov Trenin scored and unassisted goal at 11:13. He picked off a pass by Marc-Edouard Vlasic that came right to him above the blue paint.

Mikael Granlund scored a power play goal at 13:06. His shot from the bluel line went ight up the middle through traffic. Assists went to McCarron and Josi.

The Sharks power play got three shots on goal, and gave up two short-handed shots. Their penalty kill gave up oe goal and four shots.

Rudolf Balcers was back in the lineup Saturday. Erik Karlsson has been practicing but is not expected to play before next week.

The Sharks play again on Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks at 5:00 PM PT.

Sharks Fall to Predators 3-1; Loss is second in a row for Sharks

San Jose Sharks defenseman Mike Ferraro (38) skates around the back of the net in the second period against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Tue Oct 21, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks were defeated 3-1 by the Predators in Nashville Tuesday. Nashville goals came from Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg and Mikael Granlund. Juuse Saros made 28 saves for the win. Timo Meier scored for the Sharks, and James Reimer made 23 saves in the loss.

The Predators scored less than two minutes into the game, on a very early power play. Duchene skated right down the slot, with Brent Burns in front of him. His shot slipped around Burns’ stick and past Reimer at 1:20. Assists went to Roman Josi and Ryan Johansen.

That was only penalty the Sharks’ took in the game. The Sharks power play had two shots on goal in the first, and the teams were dead even in shots for the first period at nine each. In the face-off circle, the Predators had an edge with a 52% win percentage.

Filip Forsberg made it 2-0 Predators at 12:31 of the second period. Roman Josi held the puck around the face-off dot until two Sharks and their goalie moved to defend against his shot. Then he found Forsbeg in the slot with a centering pass. Forsberg’s shot went between Mario Ferraro’s legs and over Reimer’s glove. Assists went to Josi and Dante Fabbro.

The Sharks had a slight edge in shots during the second period, 12-10. Their pwoer play got four shots in two tries. They improved in teh face-off circle to 57%.

Timo Meier scored for San Jose 11:54 into the third period. After an offensive zone draw, Meier jumped on a rebound and managed to get the puck in the net before tripping over Juuse’s outstretched left arm. Assists went to Jonathan Dahlen and Logan Couture.

Mikael Granlund scored into an empty net at 19:07, with a shot from his own net front. An assist went to Alexandre Carrier.

The Sharks finished with a 29-26 edge in shots and won 54% of their face-offs.

The Sharks next play on Thursday, at home in San Jose against the Montreal Canadiens at 7:30 PM PT.

Sharks Shut Out 4-0 By Blue Jackets

Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks were shut out 4-0 in Columbus Saturday. The Blue Jackets got goals from Boone Jenner, Matt Duchene (on his second day with the team), Cam Atkinson and Pierre-Luc Dubois. Sergei Bobrovski made 26 saves for the shut out, while the Sharks’ Martin Jones made 19 saves on 23 shots before being replaced by Aaron Dell, who made three saves on as many shots.

After the game, Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said: “We don’t need a refresher. You know, we had a shut out the other night, so it’s not 6-5 every night. We’re doing our job defensively, that’s why we’re scoring. Tonight was one that kind of got away from us. Our special teams weren’t great, and five-on-five … didn’t generate a lot.”

Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said: “Fugly. I mean, you know, not much else to say. It’s one of those… you have a few of those games a year, I don’t know why. We didn’t execute, they were hungrier, they were more desperate, they deserved to win. Having said that, it was still a 2-0 game, we had some chances to maybe turn it a little bit but we didn’t deserve… We got what we deserved tonight.”

The Blue Jackets struck first at the 11-minute mark of the first. Josh Anderson carried the puck into the zone, facing resistance from Erik Karlsson. Brent Burns was also keeping an eye on him, perhaps too close an eye. Boone Jenner entered the zone behind Burns and caught Anderson’s pass for an unimpeded shot from the slot. Anderson got the only assist.

Columbus doubled their lead just 59 seconds into the second period. Artemi Panarin carried the puck in and waited until the last second to shoot. Jones stopped that but two Sharks defenders with one Blue Jacket crowded in front of the net and made it oddly difficult to see where that puck was going. Matt Duchene, however, had a god view of it as he skated to the net and popped the puck over the line. Assists went to Cam Atkinson and Panarin. It was Duchene’s first goal as a Blue Jacket since being traded to Columbus on Friday.

There were no penalties in the first period, but five were called in the second. Two of those power plays went to the Sharks, but they had no shots on goal in their first power play and just one in their second. The Sharks killed two of the Blue Jackets’ power plays, but they gave up a goal on the third.

With just 6.9 seconds left in the period and 1:36 left in the power play, Zach Werenski took a shot from the blue line that hit Jones and then trickled under him. Cam Atkinson found the puck behind the goalie and pushed it over the line. Assists went to Werenski and Panarin.

The Blue Jackets made it 4-0 at 6:02 of the third. Pierre-Luc Dubois skated into the zone, pressured by Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The pressure was not enough as Dubois got the shot off anyway. It did not look like Martin Jones expected that as the puck went right under him. Assists went to Dean Kukan and Oliver Bjorkstrand.

After the fourth goal, the Sharks pulled Martin Jones and put Aaron Dell in the net.

Erik Karlsson left the game after just four shifts in the second period. After the game, Pete DeBoer said that he had re-tweaked something and they “will see where it’s at tomorrow.” Marcus Sorensen left early in the third after being hit in the face by a shot from Dean Kukan.

The Sharks next play on Sunday in Detroit against the Red Wings at 12:00 noon PT.

Sharks’ road woes continue as Matt Duchene quickly scores game-winner to lift Senators to 6-5 win in OT

Photo credit: San Jose Sharks

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost in overtime 6-5 to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre Friday night. Three third period goals propelled the Senators into the extra period, where Matt Duchene scored the game-winner just seven seconds in. The loss is the third for the Sharks on this five-game road trip. San Jose has just one win since they hit the road on New Years Eve 2017.

Tomas Hertl did his part for San Jose, scoring twice. Additional goals came from Brent Burns, Chris Tierney and Melker Karlsson. For Ottawa, Matt Duchene scored twice, including the overtime winner, while Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, Ryan Dzingle and Derick Brassard scored the balance of the Ottawa goals. Aaron Dell made 37 saves for San Jose, while Craig Anderson made 30 saves for Ottawa.

After the game, Sharks captain Joe Pavelski talked about the team’s third period breakdown:

Positives are there, you know, you come out, you get that lead, we played well. We get a point out of tonight but obviously what we’re focussed on right now is that third period and that was uncharacteristic of us. We’ll have to be aware of the situation and next time we’re in it we got to, you know, establish our game better. We always talk about it: it doesn’t matter if we have the lead or not, we got to play a certain way in the third and you can’t sit back. We might have a little bit too much tonight.

The first goal of the game was scored short-handed by Hertl at 6:29. Brent Burns snuck a pass to Logan Couture along the wall and Couture hit Hertl as he crossed the San Jose blue line for the breakaway.

Dzingle tied it up after Stone picked off a Kevin Labanc pass to Logan Couture on the Senators’ blue line. Stone and Brassard got away from the Sharks defense and no one was there to cover Dzingle as he came down the slot late. He arrived just in time to catch a clean pass from Stone and slip the puck around Dell at 10:05. Assists went to Stone and Brassard.

Karlsson answered three minutes later, tipping a blue line shot from Joakim Ryan. A second assist went to Jannik Hansen.

The Sharks seemed to run away with the game in the second period with two power play goals in a row. The first came in the final seconds of the power play. Joonas Donskoi, Chris Tierney and Timo Meier entered the zone fast with a pass from Tierney to Donskoi. Donskoi’s shot came off of Anderson’s pads right to Tierney who kicked the puck to his stick and took the shot. Assists went to Donskoi and Tim Heed.

The next goal came less than two minutes later, on yet another power play. Joe Pavelski carried the puck in and had to pass the puck back to Couture at the point. Couture redirected the puck to Burns along the blue line and he wasted no time on the shot. Couture and Pavelski had the assists.

The Senators started the climb back with a power play goal from Mark Stone just over a minute later. Erik Karlsson took a shot from the blue line that broke Couture’s stick. The dead shot trickled to Hoffman. He quickly passed it to Stone who put it by Dell on the short side.

At 13:27, Hertl extended the Sharks lead again, with a desperate wrap around shot while falling to the ice. The puck went off of Anderson’s stick, but assists went to Couture and Brenden Dillon.

Derick Brassard scored just 26 seconds into the third period. His shot came from a bad angle and went off of Dell’s skate through a gap by the post. Assists went to Stone and Karlsson.

The shots were 11-1 for the Senators in the third, when Matt Duchene scored off a rebound created by Bobby Ryan’s shot from the slot. Matt Hoffman also had an assist.

Hoffman followed that up by tying the game at 10:48. Dell could not get across quickly enough to stop Hoffman’s one-timer off Duchene’s pass. Assists went ot Duchene and Bobby Ryan.

Hoffman won the faceoff and went right into a two on one with Duchene. His last-moment pas across the goal mouth left Duchene with an almost open net.

The Sharks next play on Sunday in Winnipeg against the Jets at 12 pm PT.

Avalanche Win 4-3, Block Sharks Comeback

By Mary Walsh

DENVER- The Colorado Avalanche did not run roughshod over the San Jose Sharks, on their way to a 4-0 lead Saturday. What they did for a brief spell early in the second period was run around them. The Sharks looked to be in control of the game several times, except for their opponent’s scoring opportunities. Those squeaked through at first, then flowed as from an open spigot.

The game seemed all but over when the score reached 4-0, after the Avalanche scored three times in just over one minute in the second period. The Sharks scored twice in the same period, with the help from some power plays. A third tally from Logan Couture early in the third pulled a comeback within reach, but the Avalanche held on to win 4-3.

The Avalanche had two very good chances early in the game, getting the puck and bodies to the net. Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi made the saves but the Sharks seemed to start out a step behind the speedy Avs.

The Sharks had a couple of early shots, first from Andrew Desjardins and James Sheppard, and then from Matt Nieto on a line with Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau. After the five minute mark, the Sharks picked up their game and started racking up the chances. By the ten minute mark, the Avs had gone for six minutes without a shot.

Colorado finally did make a push the other way and Niemi had to glove a shot from John Mitchell to halt play. A moderate ruckus in front of the net ensued, with Andrew Desjardins in the middle of it. Cody McLeod caught the linesman with a stick but no penalties came out of it.

The Sharks took the game back after that, putting relentless pressure on the Avs, leaving Niemi with little to do except be ready for the occasional and very fast Colorado incursion. One such drew a penalty against the Sharks, when Justin Braun was called for hooking Matt Duchene, at 14:44 of the period.

It took the Colorado power play almost a minute, but they did make that power play pay off at 15:28. Andre Benoit shot the puck at the net from the blue line, and Nathan McKinnon tipped it in. Assists went to Benoit and Paul Stastny.

Shots for the period were 10-8 San Jose.

The Sharks started the second period with two dump-ins but no extended control of the puck, and then Sharks Captain Joe Thornton took an interference penalty on Ryan O’Reilly just 23 seconds in. The Sharks penalty killers minimized Colorado’s chances and survived the early setback.

The Sharks seemed to be getting their act together when a series of mistakes in their own zone created an opportunity for Jamie McGinn to score his ninth of the season, extending his goal streak to three games. Assist to Matt Duchene. That goal seemed to leave Niemi unsettled, and when a bouncing shot came down from the blue line and went by him 52 seconds later, Sharks Coach Todd McLellan replaced him with Alex Stalock. The goal went to Erik Johnson, with assists to Gabriel Landeskog and Paul Stastny.

Right off the faceoff, McKinnon sped into the Sharks zone and put a shot past Stalock, giving the Avs three goals in a minute, six seconds. The next faceoff started with a fight or two. Desjardins, Bracken Kearns and McLeod ended up in the box, giving the Avalanche a five-on-four power play.

37 seconds into the power play, Logan Couture drew a roughing call against Matt Duchene, putting the teams at four on four. 25 seconds later, Jan Hejda was called for slashing Joe Pavelski, giving the Sharks a brief five-on-three. While the Avalanche were busy knocking Couture down repeatedly in front of the blue paint, they missed Pavelski coming in to fire on an open net. That put the Sharks on the board with a minute left in the power play. Assists went to Marleau and Thornton. That penalty expired but seconds later, as Alex Stalock flew to the bench during a delayed penalty, Patrick Marleau came on to the ice and his quick shot brought the Sharks within two.

A chance in front of the Avalanche net ended with the net off its moorings and Desjardins fighting Max Talbot in the corner, after the linesman did make an effort to restrain them. Desjardins quickly took the upper hand in that one. While he and Talbot sat in the box for the fighting major, the Sharks put together some good time in the offensive zone, but the Avalanche kept them from finishing.

With just a minute and 46 seconds left in the period, Alex Stalock was penalized for delay of game after he played the puck over the glass. The Sharks kept the Avalanche power play from scoring before the end of the period.

The shot count for the second period was 13-9 San Jose.

The Sharks finished off the penalty kill to start the third period, and the game proceeded at a subdued pace. With five minutes gone, the Sharks were having trouble maintaining possession of the puck. After playing catch with the Avs in the neutral zone for nearly a minute, the puck finally landed on Couture’s stick so he could carry it into the zone with Marleau. A pass back to the blue line gave Scott Hannan a chance to shoot. Marleau couldn’t get the first rebound in but Couture was there to grab the second one, and put it past Varlamov. That cut Colorado’s lead to one at 5:44 of the third period. Assists went to Marleau and Hannan.

The Sharks had a power play at of the third, when James Sheppard and Jan Hejda collided in front of the Avs net. The refs called Hejda for interference. The Sharks couldn’t score on that power play, despite many close calls. A series of failures to keep the puck in burned seconds off that power play. With about a minute and a half left, McLellan pulled Stalock for the extra attacker, but the Sharks still couldn’t sustain pressure in the offensive zone. The Avalanche held on for the 4-3 win.

Patrick Marleau was the game’s points leader with a goal and two assists. Joe Pavelski led the Sharks in shots with seven, Erik Johnson led the Avalanche with five. The Sharks’ power play went 1/3, their penalty kill 3/4. Antti Niemi stopped 11 of 14 shots, Alex Stalock stopped 6 of 7 for the Sharks.

Roster Notes:
Eriah Hayes made a difficult trip through a storm to get to Denver from Boston, but he did not crack the Sharks lineup. Mike Brown, hit twice by friendly fire at the end of the game against the Oilers in San Jose, was good to go. Tommy Wingels, however, was still not able to play and has been placed on IR for an upper body injury, not a head injury.