SAN JOSE – Nick Gialdini might solely save the San Jose Sharks so many instances on Thursday night time towards the Minnesota Wild.
Gialdini, the Sharks’ video coach, noticed that the Wild was offside earlier than two of its targets within the second interval and alerted the Sharks’ teaching employees. This, after all, helped Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky efficiently problem each performs.
However the Sharks might solely maintain out for therefore lengthy, as a deep and proficient Wild crew scored two different completely authorized targets within the second interval and went on to earn a 5-2 victory earlier than an introduced crowd of 10,526 at SAP Heart.
Macklin Celebrini scored targets on the 4:36 mark of the second interval and 16:08 mark of the third, each off assists from Mikael Granlund and each on Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Celebrini, 18, is the youngest participant within the NHL, and Fleury, 40, is the oldest.
However after Celebrini’s first aim, the Wild bought targets from Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy later within the second interval to take a 3-1 lead.
Fleury completed with 24 saves in one more win over the Sharks, as San Jose completed its homestand with a 3-2-0 report.
After Celebrini’s second aim, Boldy scored an empty-netter with beneath two minutes to play to seal the win for Minnesota, which received for the eighth time in its final 10 video games.
Zach Bogosian and Jonas Brodin additionally scored for the Wild, and Kirill Kaprizov had three assists.
Sharks goalie Vitek Vanecek completed with 26 saves as his report this season fell to 2-5-0. Vanecek was coming off a 49-save efficiency in a 2-1 extra time by the Sharks over Columbus on Tuesday.
The Sharks begin a four-game street journey on Sunday towards the New Jersey Devils.
Celebrini scored in his NHL debut on Oct. 10 however was positioned on injured reserve two days later with a hip ailment. Celebrini returned to the Sharks’ lineup on Tuesday towards the Columbus Blue Jackets after he missed 12 video games however regarded much less rusty towards the Wild.
The Sharks fell behind 1-0 on a little bit of a fluky bounce within the Wild’s favor.
After Will Smith misplaced a faceoff to Marcus Foligno deep within the Sharks’ zone, Declan Chisholm despatched a go over to Bogosian, whose shot towards the web went off Smith’s skate and previous Vanecek on the 2:22 mark. Smith was checking Foligno, who went to the Sharks’ crease proper after he received the face.
The Sharks didn’t get their first shot on internet till the 9:32 mark of the primary interval, as Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury blockered away a shot from Barclay Goodrow.
Nonetheless, the Sharks had been solely down by a aim, as they killed the 2 penalties they took within the first interval.
Fleury is predicted to retire on the finish of the season, and Thursday’s sport might have been his final begin in San Jose.
It’s not a second too quickly for Sharks followers. Coming into Thursday, Fleury, in 27 common season video games towards the Sharks, was 18-5-4 all-time vs. San Jose with a .939 save proportion.
The Sharks knew they might be examined by the Wild, one of many NHL’s stingiest groups that had solely misplaced two video games in regulation time this season.
Earlier than its 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, Minnesota had received seven of eight, together with a powerful 5-1 victory in Florida on Oct. 22 and up to date dwelling wins over Tampa Bay and Toronto.
Earlier than Thursday, the Wild had solely allowed a median of two.67 targets per sport, the fifth-best mark within the NHL. Minnesota was additionally one of many least-penalized groups within the NHL, and goalies Fleury and Filip Gustavsson had mixed for a powerful .907 save proportion—the sixth-best within the NHL.
Besides, Kaprizov was, earlier than Thursday, the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer with 21 factors in 12 video games.
“First and foremost is we’ve got to mentally be aware when he’s on the ice and get to our matchups, and we’ve got to take away time and space and play through him,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky stated Thursday morning. “I thought that was a big issue in the game against Columbus.”
Initially Revealed: November 7, 2024 at 10:11 PM PST
