SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks ended a protracted shedding streak on residence ice in emphatic vogue on Thursday night time.
Forwards Alexander Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev every had a objective and an help, and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves in his finest efficiency of the season to assist lead the Sharks to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils at SAP Heart.
The third line of Wennberg, Kurashev, and Eklund had a formidable first interval as every participant scored a objective to assist in giving the Sharks a 3-1 lead. After withstanding a Devils push within the second interval, primarily with the assistance of Nedeljkovic, the Sharks acquired even-strength objectives from Will Smith and Tyler Toffoli to take a 5-1 lead and put the sport principally out of attain.
Macklin Celebrini assisted on Smith’s objective on the 16:50 mark, controlling a faceoff within the Devils zone earlier than getting the puck over to Smith, who scored his fourth of the season on a second effort. Toffoli’s objective was additionally his fourth of the 12 months, as he redirected a shot by Dmitry Orlov previous Devils goalie Jake Allen.
Celebrini now has 5 objectives and 7 assists in a career-long six-game level streak, and Eklund has 9 factors in a five-game level streak.
Nedeljkovic got here into Thursday with a 1-4-1 file and an unpleasant .844 save proportion. However the Sharks haven’t at all times performed essentially the most stout model of protection in Nedeljkovic’s begins, or in a number of of Yaroslav Askarov’s appearances.
The Sharks began this season 0-3-2 on residence ice, and really hadn’t gained on the Tank since March 27 of final season once they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 in a shootout. The Sharks then misplaced their final 5 residence video games, all in regulation time, as a part of a year-ending 11-game shedding streak that sealed their standing because the NHL’s last-place group.
The Sharks (3-6-2) have been coming off a disappointing 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday once they primarily dominated the ultimate two intervals. Nonetheless, they’ve now gained three of their final 5 video games and can conclude their homestand with video games towards the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday and the Detroit Pink Wings on Sunday.
Rookie defenseman Sam Dickinson performed his ninth recreation of the season on Thursday, and now the Sharks must resolve on whether or not to maintain him on the NHL roster or mortgage him again to his main junior group, the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.
If the Sharks play Dickinson in a tenth recreation, they’d burn the primary 12 months of his three-year entry-level contract, making him eligible for restricted free company – and a possible important pay rise — following the 2027-28 season.
However Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky mentioned the group’s choice whether or not to maintain Dickinson and rookie middle Michael Misa or return them to their respective OHL groups will in the end come all the way down to what they really feel is finest for his or her improvement.
“At the end of the day, what’s best for the player and what’s best for the team?” Warsofsky mentioned of the choice. “If they can handle it, and if we believe they can handle it, they’ll stay here. If not, then we’ll go through those processes.”
Earlier than Thursday, Dickinson, 19, had performed eight of the Sharks’ 10 video games this season and averaged simply over 14 minutes of ice time. Whereas he was nonetheless in search of his first NHL level, he did have optimistic underlying numbers — with a Corsi-for proportion of 52.46, per Pure Stat Trick — as he performed primarily on the Sharks’ third protection pair.
“We’re going to see how engaged he is,” Warsofsky mentioned when requested what he wanted to see from Dickinson. “Is he executing the breakouts. Is he executing our construction? Is the tempo appropriate from him from the beginning of the sport to the (finish)? What number of occasions is there a dip in his recreation?
“There’s going to be errors, however are we seeing much less and fewer of these errors?
