Sharks Fall 4-2 to Canucks, Canucks Sweep Season Series

Vancouver Canucks’ Alex Chiasson and fans celebrate his goal during third period action at Rogers Place in Vancouver on Sat Apr 9, 2022 (The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks’ Alex Chiasson and fans celebrate after Chiasson scores in the third period against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Place in Vancouver on Sat Apr 10, 2022 (The Canadian Press via AP)

By Mary Walsh

VANCOUVER- The San Jose Sharks dropped their sixth in a row, a 4-2 road loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. The loss concluded the season series between the teams, with the Canucks winning all three games. The win put the Canucks within four points of a playoff spot. Jason Dicksinson, Conor Garland, Alex Chiasson and Luke Schenn scored for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko made 35 saves for the win. Tomas Hertl and Nick Bonino scored for the Sharks and Kaapo Kahkonen made 35 saves in the loss.

Like many of the Sharks recent losses, the game was close in many respects. Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner listed some of the missed opportunities that the Sharks had on Saturday:

“Had our scoring chances, again, I mean, I sound like a broken record but we had breakaways, we had three posts, you know, we had looks at the end in our six on five, six on four situation. You know, we had plenty of opportunities to score, we didn’t get it done.”

Sharks defenseman Ryan Merkley took a hit early in the first period after missing the mark with a drop pass in the Canucks zone. While he was getting to the bench, the Canucks went the other way and scored. He left the game until late in the period. Boughner discussed the hit and the play:

“I thought [the hit] looked a little high. Concerned about that, also concerned about the play. In the back of our net, that’s how we start the game. Things that we’re trying to get out of his game, out of our game. He’s a young guy. But I think that he got hit high, I looked at it a few times. He went through protocol, got checked out, it was good to see him come back healthy and ready to help us. But those are learning plays.”

Jason Dickinson gave the Canucks the lead just 2:05 into the first period. He intercepted a pass in the Sharks zone and went the other way two-on-one. He tucked the puck into the net at the last minute after Kahkonen had come too far out of the net.

Tomas Hertl tied it at 7:33 with a power play goal. Erik Karlsson set up Timo Meier for a shot from the circle. Demko stopped Meier’s shot but the rebound went right to Hertl on the other side. Assists went to Meier and Karlsson.

Conor Garland made it 2-1 at 4:49 of the second period. Garland picked up the puck at the Sharks blue line and went the other way with speed. He took the shot from the circle and to score his 15^th of the season. Alex Chiasson got the assist.

Nick Bonino, playing his 750^th NHL game, deflected a Brent Burns shot from the point to tie it at 18:37. Assists went to Burns and Noah Gregor.

Alex Chiasson made it 3-2 at 2:07 of the third period. He caught the puck low in the circle and put the shot through the short side. Assists went to Bo Horvat and Tyler Myers.

Luke Schenn scored a short-handed goal into and empty net with a second left in the game to make it 4-2.

The Sharks killed seven penalties in the game, allowing 12 shots to the Canucks power play. The Sharks power play had five opportunities and got one goal and five shots. In the face-off circle, the Sharks won 55% of the draws.

The Sharks next play on Tuesday in Nashville against the Predators at 5:00 PM PT.

Sharks Lose 5-4 in OT to Canucks, 5th Loss in a Row

Vancouver Canucks right wing Brock Boeser (6), Matthew Highmore (15), center J.T. Miller (9) and Conor Garland (8) celebrate Miller’s goal in overtime at the SAP Center in San Jose on Thu Feb 17, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks lost 5-4 in OT to the Vancouver Canucks Thursday. Juho Lammikko, Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes, Connor Garland, and J.T. Miller scored for Vancouver. Thatcher Demko made 24 saves for the win. Logan Couture, Timo Meier ad Alexander Barabanov scored for San Jose, with two goals from Meier. James Reimer, making his sixth start in a row, made 22 saves in the loss.

In the first period, the Sharks were badly outshot, 15-4. In the second, the Sharks pushed back and had 15 shots to the Canucks’ 5, and in the third the Sharks had 9 shots to the Canucks’ 5. The Sharks had no shots in overtime. After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“I think the shots were something like 24,25-10 in the last two periods. I thought we had a lot of good looks. So, yeah, that’s our identity, that’s how we gotta play. I think if we could play the way we played in the last two periods, we’re going to get our fair share of points down the stretch but we’ve got to start on time.”

Sharks forward Tomas Hertl summed it up as: “We need effort for 60 minutes otherwise we will not win games here.”

Brock Boeser scored the first goal for Vancouver at 14:54 of the first. Skating to the net, with traffic in front of Reimer, Boeser shifted around the traffic and found an opening. He put the puck in the to top corner on Reimer’s glove side. Assists went to J.T. Miller and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Quinn Hughes scored at 17:40 to make it 2-0. Hughes took a shot from the point that bounced under Michael Highmore, back into the air and past Reimer.

Logan Couture got the Sharks on the board 3:35 into the second period. Couture seemed to be making a pass to Gregor but the puck hit the stick of Tyler Meyers and went into the Vancouver net. Assists went to Matt Nieto and Noah Gregor.

Juho Lammikko restored the Canucks’ two-goal lead at 10:49. Kyle Burroughs took a shot from high in the slot and the puck went off of Lammikko and into the net. An assist went to Burroughs.

Timo Meier scored on the power play to cut the lead back down to one at 14:03. Tomas Hertl passed it to him from below the goal line. Meier found a small gap to put the puck between Demko and the post. Assists went to Hertl and Alexander Barabanov.

Meier scored a second power play goal to tie it just 45 seconds into the third. This time he took the shot from above the right face-off circle. Demko had lost track of the puck and Meier had an open net to shoot at. Assists again went to Hertl and Barabanov.

Vancouver grabbed the lead back at 14:23 with a goal from Connor Garland. During a scramble in front of the net, Garland found the puck and put it in.

In the final second of the third, with the Sharks net empty, Alexander Barabanov tied the game with a shot from just above the goal line. Assists went to Meier and Brent Burns.

J.T. Miller scored the game winner during a delayed penalty with a shot into the top corner over Reimer’s stick. Assists went to Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.

The Sharks were dominant in the face-off circle through all three periods, winning 33 of 55 draws. The Sharks power play had seven shots, and their penalty kill gave up 3.

The Sharks next play on Sunday at 5:00 PM PT against the Vegas Golden Knights in San Jose.

Canucks Sink Sharks 5-2, Meier Scores 100th

Timo Meier (28) is congratulated by San Jose Sharks teammate Erik Karlsson (65) after scoring his 100th career goal in the first period at SAP Center in San Jose on Thu Dec 16, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks fell 5-2 to the Vancouver Canucks Thursday. Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller, Jason Dickinson scored for Vancouver, and Brock Boeser scored twice. Thatcher Demko made 34 saves for the win. Timo Meier and Andrew Cogliano scored for San Jose and Adin Hill made 25 saves in the loss,

The win lifted the Canucks record to 6-0 since Bruce Boudreau took over as head coach. Meanwhile, the Sharks have just two wins in their last six outings. Tomas Hertl is on a 6 game point streak and Timo Meier’s goal was his 100th in the NHL.

Afte the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner shared his impression of his team’s performance:

“I thought that, you know, the way we played tonight, I felt good about our team. I felt good about the way we played but we just didn’t execute, like I said, we didn’t capitalize. I thought that, you know, we probably needed a save earlier that we didn’t get. And sometimes that’s demoralizing too, when you’re sitting on the bench thinking you’re carrying the play and you’re chasing the game.”

Sharks forward Andrew Cogliano said: “It seems like, you know, opportunities that they get are going in and we’re not fighting hard enough to score our goals. We just have to be more desperate. I think we’re in a situation now where we’ve given some games back in a race that there’s a lot of teams in. And our will to win needs to increase.”

Brock Boeser scored the first goal of the game at 12:41 of the first period. Tanner Pearson made a pass across the ice to Boeser, who took the shot from just above the hask marks.

Bo Horvat made it 2-0 with a power play goal at 16:23. J.T. Miller made a cross-ice pass to Horvat, who was just below the hash marks that Boeser scored from. Assists went to J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes.

Timo Meier cut the Canucks lead in half with a goal at 17:22. An Erik Karlsson shot was blocked and bounced out to Meier in the face-off circle. His shot went through traffic and in. Assists went to Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl.

Brock Boeser made it 3-1 with his second of the game at 17:17 of the second period. J.T. Miller passed the puck up from below the goal line and found Boeser in the face-off circle. Boeser took the shot and the puck went off of Hill’s glove and before going into the net just under the bar. Assists went to Miller and Tanner Pearson.

Andrew Cogliano made it 3-2 at 8:29 of the third period. Cogliano chased down his own dump-in and took a shot from a bad angle that may have suprised Demko. Assists went to Lane Pederson and Brent Burns.

J.T Miller scored into an empty net at 17:32. Jason Dickinson scored into an empty net at 18:57. Assists went to Elias Petterson and Kyle Burroughs.

The Sharks out-shot the Canucks 34-30 in the game. In the third period, however, while the Sharks trailed, the Canucks out-shot the Sharks 15-11. The Canucks won 57% of the face-offs. The Sharks had one power play and it had two shots on goal. The Sharks penalty kill allowed three shots and one goal in three penalties.

Jayden Halbgewachs made his NHL debut with the Sharks Thursday. He took one penalty and had three shots on goal in 16:44 of ice time with the second line.

The Sharks will host the Vancouver Canucks again on Tuesday, at 7:30 PM PT.

Sharks Lose 4-1 to Canucks; Get swept in three game road trip

theprovince.com photo: Vancouver Canucks centre Jay Beagle (83) goes into the boards with San Jose Sharks right wing Stefan Noesen (11) during first period NHL hockey action in Vancouver, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks fell 4-1 to the Vancouver Canucks Saturday and go into the All-Star break on a three-game losing streak. The win put the Canucks at first in the Pacific Division. Canucks goals were scored by Loui Eriksson, Tanner Pearson, Quinn Hughes and T.J. Miller. Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko made 17 saves for the win. Barclay Goodrow scored the Sharks goal and Aaron Dell made 35 saves i the loss.

After the game, Sharks forward Timo Meier said:

Showed some good stuff but not 60 minutes. That’s what it takes on the road, you’ve got to play 60 minutes of honest hockey, hard-working hockey. We didn’t get that done. Now we’ve got a break. We’re obviously not feeling great going into this break. But coming back from the break we’ve got to be ready to give everything we’ve got, push for it.

After the game, Sharks interim head coach Bob Boughner was asked why the team was having so much trouble creating offense. He mentioned the absence of Logan Couture and the fact that the team is having trouble getting out of their own zone. He also pointed to face-offs: “I think the big difference is, this road trip, we’ve been horrible in the face-off circle. Now you’re never starting with the puck, even in the offensive zone, you’re chasing. You can’t chase pucks all night. That limits your possession, and tires you out.”

The Sharks finished the game with an abysmal 38% face-off win percentage. Tomas Hertl and Barclay Goodrow have been struggling there, though they had regular success earlier in the season and tend to take a lot of draws. The only Sharks above 50% in Saturday’s game took relatively few draws. They were Evander Kane, who won three of five draws, Annti Suomela, who won four of seven, and Joel Kellman, who won three of five.

The first period was scoreless and that was the only good thing about it for the Sharks. They finished it with three shots on goal to the Canucks’ nine. The Canucks also won 67% of the face-offs.

The second period did not shape up to be any better than the first for the Sharks, while the Canucks seemed to gain confidence. The period was still scoreless until 14:05 when Tanner Pearson took a shot from the slot. He did not get all of it and it went off of a Sharks before getting to Dell. Loui Eriksson was at the net to pick up the rebound and put it in the net. Assists went to Pearson and Bo Horvat.

The Sharks challenged the goal as an offside play but the review determined otherwise and put the Sharks on the penalty kill. The Sharks killed the penalty but by the end of the period they still only had four shots  and had allowed 18 including the goal.

The Sharks had a better start to the third period, getting the first shots in the first few minutes of play. But at 4:37, Timo Meier went to the box for goaltender interference. 24 seconds into that penalty, Vancouver scored again. This one came as the Canucks entered the zone with Jake Virtanen on the wall. He took the shot and Pearson tipped it in. A secondary assist went to Adam Gaudette.

Barclay Goodrow got one back for the Sharks at 7:09. Erik Karlsson’s shot wound up in traffic in front of the net, where Goodrow dug for it and put it across the line. It was Goodrow’s eighth of the season, a career high for him. Assists went to Karlsson and Antti Suomela.

Vancouver took that back less than a minute later. Quinn Hughes took the shot from the blue line, right through a line of traffic. Assists went to Antoine Rouselle and Adam Gaudette.

Near the midpoint of the period, refereee Kendrick Nicholson took a shot to the head. It appeared that his helmet took the brunt of it but he left the game to be checked out.

Vancouver scored again at 15:27 of a two-on-one against Brent Burns. Burns dropped to block the pass but Virtanen passed the puck over him to J.T. Miller, who beat Dell on the blocker side. Elias Petterssen got the secondary assist.

For the second game in a row, the game ended with laundry list of penalties as scraps broke out at 17:18. Joe Thornton and Alexander Edler took matching roughing penalties. Thornton got an extra one for interference, and Edler was given a misconduct. Barclay Goodrow and Brenden Dillon both had misconducts. Brandon Sutter had a misconduct and Christopher Tanev got a roughing and a misconduct.

The Sharks finished the third period with a more respectable 11 shots to Vancouver’s 12.

Tomas Hertl will attend the All Star game starting on the 24th. The rest of the team will be off until the 29th, their first game after the break.

Sharks Lose 5th in a Row, Fall 5-2 to Canucks

photo from sfgate.com: Thatcher Demko (35) goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks goes into the defensive posture against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center in San Jose on Saturday night. Demko stopped 24 San Jose shots for the Sharks second consecutive home stand loss.

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks lost 5-2 to the Vancouver Canucks Saturday at the SAP Center. This was the first road win for the Canucks in San Jose since March 31, 2016, and it added a fifth to the Sharks’ second four-loss streak of the season. Canucks goals were scored by Brandon Sutter, Elias Pettersson, Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette. Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko made 24 saves for the win. The Sharks goals were scored by Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Evander Kane. Goaltender Aaron Dell made 23 saves for the Sharks.

After the game, Sharks captain Logan Couture talked about the question of confidence during a losing streak:

For a lot of us, we’ve done some really really good things in this league, we’ve been successful players in this league for a long time. I think we need to get that swagger, that confidence back that we’ve had here for so many years. You know, it’s tough when you’re losing, it is very very difficult to feel confident when you’ve got the puck to make that play when you’ve got the extra second.

Are the Sharks losing patience with each other in the midst of this lousy start? After the game, Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon warned that that was a danger, but then said: “It’s pretty easy to look at the guy next to you instead of looking at yourself. Again, we’ve got a lot of skill on this team, a lot of talent. Guys that have been here for a long time… know what it takes to win. I think everybody, if we can believe back in that and just get into that we’re going to be okay.”

Vancouver’s Brandon Sutter started the scoring at 4:17 of the first period. Josh Leivo took a shot from above the faceoff circle. Dell stopped that, but came out a ways to do so and then kicked out a rebound. Sutter picked up the rebound and got it in the net before Dell could get back in position. It was Sutter’s fourth of the season.

Elias Pettersson doubled up Vancover’s lead with a goal at 12:46. Brock Boeser’s pass came out to center above the hash marks, where Pettersson was ready for it. Dell and Brendand Dillon did not seem ready for it and Pettersson’s shot went right through them. It was Pettersson’s fifth of the season. Assists went to Boeser and Bo Horvat.

The Sharks’ penalty kill held the Canucks to one shot on their first period power play. Vancouver still outshot the Sharks 14-8.

Jake Virtanen added a third goal for the Canucks, just 45 seconds into the second period. His shot went right into Dell and then over his leg. Dell went down and had the puck in his legs, and the on ice official called it no goal. After an official review, the call was overturned. Assists went to Alexader Edler and Tyler Myers.

At 5:11, Adam Gaudette scored Vancouver’s fourth on a broken tic-tack-toe play that drew Aaron Dell and two defenders to the right side of the net, allowing the puck to get by on the left. The goal came during a delayed penalty against the Sharks. The puck seemed to be on its way to Troy Stecher as he closed on the net behind the mass of bodies to one side. Instead, it went off of one of those bodies and into the net.

The Sharks had two power plays in the second period, and got six shots with the man advantage. the teams were tied for shots in the second period at eight apiece.

At the end of the second, Joe Thorton was called for cross-checking Jay Beagle, putting Vancouver on the power play to start the third period. The Canucks did not get a shot during that power play. The Sharks had their own power play chance at 2:38, in which they got two shots, but no goal.

The Sharks finally got on the board with a short-handed goal from Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Barclay Goodrow. They broke away and were able to go in two-on-one and score at 10:51.

The Canucks power play turned into a two-man advantage not long after that, when Joe Thornton was boxed for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Sharks survived that, but after the first penalty expired, they gave up a fifth goal. It was Pettersson’s second of the night, with an assist to JT Miller.

Evander Kane added the Sharks’ second goal with just 22 seconds left in regulation. He skated into the zone with Tomas Hertl and went around the Canucks defense to shoot. His first shot came back as a rebound, but he picked it up and put it away. Assists went to Kevin Labanc and Erik Karlsson.

The Sharks next play on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks at 7:00 PM PT in San Jose.

Lukas Radil was in Saturday, with Jonny Brodzinsky back out of the lineup.