Second-year Sharks heart Macklin Celebrini made positive the a hundredth recreation of his already stellar NHL profession could be price remembering.
Celebrini had a objective and two assists, and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic completed with 28 saves to steer the Sharks to a powerful 4-1 win over the host Carolina Hurricanes on the Lenovo Middle in Raleigh on Sunday to snap a five-game street dropping streak.
Collin Graf scored his fifth of the season 33 seconds into the primary interval, and John Klingberg and heart Alexander Wennberg every scored within the second interval because the Sharks earned their first win away from dwelling since beating the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in time beyond regulation on Nov. 11.
Celebrini, 19, assisted on Graf and Klingberg’s targets and scored an empty-netter with 1:20 to go in regulation time because the Sharks rebounded from losses to the Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars earlier this week.
Over his first 100 video games for the Sharks, Celebrini is the clear chief amongst all youngsters in staff historical past in targets (40) and assists (66). Solely 5 gamers in NHL historical past, no matter age, have scored extra factors of their first 100 NHL video games: Sidney Crosby (132), Alex Ovechkin (128), Evgeni Malkin (114), Kirill Kaprizov (112), and Connor McDavid (108).
Celebrini, who has twelfth multi-point video games this season, was so decided to get the Sharks again on monitor Sunday that he wasn’t even conscious that their recreation towards the Hurricanes was the a hundredth of his profession.
“That was my 100th?” Celebrini stated on NBC Sports activities California after the sport. “I mean, that went by really fast. I know (Will Smith) had his (100th NHL game on Nov. 29). It’s something special.”
Celebrini assisted on Graf’s objective 33 seconds into the primary interval, and likewise labored a give-and-go with Klingberg, whose even-strength objective on the 7:54 mark of the second interval previous Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead.
“I saw that (Celebrini) was coming around the net, and I didn’t have a chance to shoot it right away, and didn’t see that I was going to score from (near the boards),” Klingberg stated. “You want to give the best player the puck and then open up to get an even better scoring chance. When I got the puck, I saw that I had a lot of net to shoot on over (Kochetkov’s) shoulder.”
Klingberg’s objective, plus his help on Wennberg’s energy play objective on the 15:14 mark of the second, gave him his second two-point recreation of the season after he had a objective and an help within the Sharks’ 6-1 street win over the Seattle Kraken on Nov. 5.
Klingberg, who signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Sharks in July as a free agent, has confronted his share of criticism for a way he’s performed at instances with San Jose, with an excessive amount of threat and never sufficient reward — plus maybe some sluggish decision-making — this season.
Klingberg, although, regarded sharp on the facility play, blocked three pictures, and completed with 18:43 in ice time.
“Probably his best game of the year,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky stated of Klingberg. “Just kept it simple. Moved pucks, got into people. I thought he defended with some urgency. Obviously, he scores a nice goal, but his puck play was something that we’ve talked about. It was a lot simpler, which is what we need, and we need that going forward.”
Nedeljkovic had his greatest recreation in current reminiscence, too, as his 15 saves within the third interval helped him get his first win since Nov. 7, when he stopped 32 of 33 pictures within the Sharks’ 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets. In his subsequent 5 video games earlier than Sunday, Nedeljkovic was 0-3-0 with a .870 save proportion as Yaroslav Askarov established himself because the Sharks’ No. 1 goalie.
The Sharks (14-13-3) have been coming off a 4-1 loss to the Stars on Friday, during which they allowed three targets within the third interval. Of their final 5 away video games earlier than Sunday, the Sharks have been 0-5-0 whereas being outscored 20-5.
The Sharks at the moment are 10-0-1 this season when main after two intervals, a stark distinction to final season, once they have been 12-8-5 in such conditions.
“Happy that I put us in a position to win, honestly,” Nedeljkovic stated. “If the guys can pull through and we can get two points, it’s huge. They played awesome tonight. We limited them in the first two periods there. … I thought we did a good job of just hunkering down, staying with it in our own end in the third and just keeping it simple.”
The Sharks’ street journey continues subsequent week with video games in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Toronto on Thursday, and Pittsburgh on Saturday.
