The San Jose Sharks loved a uncommon offensive outburst on Tuesday night time as they ended a three-game shedding streak.
William Eklund, Mikael Granlund, Tyler Toffoli, and Mario Ferraro all scored third-period targets to assist lead the Sharks to a 6-3 win over the Detroit Pink Wings at Little Caesars Enviornment to open a five-game highway journey.
Eklund and linemate Macklin Celebrini additionally had two assists every, and goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves for simply his second win in a Sharks uniform.
The six targets the Sharks scored had been essentially the most in anyone sport since Nov. 29 after they beat the Seattle Kraken 8-5 at SAP Middle.
“We’ve had a lot of games where we only score two or three goals,” Celebrini stated. “So it feels good to see it go in the back of the net, and we were getting (offense) from everyone.”
Jan Rutta and Nico Sturm additionally scored for the Sharks, who proceed their highway journey on Thursday in opposition to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Sharks led 4-2 halfway by means of the third interval earlier than the Pink Wings scored off a set play on a faceoff in opposition to Celebrini’s line with Toffoli and Eklund. Dylan Larkin managed the draw in opposition to Celebrini contained in the Sharks’ zone and rapidly acquired the puck over to Lucas Raymond, who beat Georgiev to chop San Jose’s result in one on the 9:56 mark.
The Sharks responded simply 61 seconds later. Celebrini put a shot towards the online contained in the Pink Wings’ zone, and after a scramble, Toffoli collected the unfastened puck and beat goalie Ville Husso with a sharp-angle shot to revive the Sharks’ two-goal lead.
“We wanted to get on them right away,” Celebrini stated. “We just kind of wanted to answer because we know that wasn’t good enough on that (Red Wings) goal.”
Georgiev snapped a private six-game shedding streak in his first win since Dec. 12, though he has performed higher of late, stopping 62 of 67 pictures in video games final week in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Hockey Membership.
Regardless of being outshot 12-6 within the first interval, the Sharks had a 2-0 lead.
Rutta’s second objective of the season got here after Alexander Wennberg gained a battle behind the Pink Wings’ internet and despatched the puck in entrance to Will Smith, whose fast shot was stopped by Husso. The rebound got here to Rutta, whose blast from contained in the blue line beat Husso for his first objective since Dec. 2.
The Sharks gave up 9 of the subsequent 10 pictures as that they had bother breaking out of their very own zone and in addition needed to kill a holding penalty to Ferraro. However on the finish of that kill, defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic despatched a puck forward to Eklund, who carried it by means of the impartial zone earlier than he despatched a nifty move to Sturm, who skated in and put a transfer on Husso earlier than scoring his fifth of the season.
Vladimir Tarasenko acquired a type of targets again for the Pink Wings on the 1:26 mark of the second interval. Contained in the Sharks’ zone, Wings ahead Jonatan Berggren despatched a move throughout the ice that was retrieved by defenseman Simon Edvinsson. Georgiev stopped his shot from a pointy angle, however Tarasenko was close to the online and fired a shot that beat Georgiev for his first objective since Dec. 1.
The sport marked Jake Walman’s return to Detroit, the place he spent two-plus seasons earlier than he and a 2024 second-round draft choose had been surprisingly traded to the Sharks for future issues.
The commerce needed to really feel like pennies from heaven for the Sharks, as Walman got here into Tuesday main the group’s skaters in common time on ice (22:49) and all defensemen with 26 factors in 32 video games.
Walman, 28, spent the primary 57 video games of his NHL profession with the St. Louis Blues earlier than he was traded to Detroit in March 2022. In 145 video games with the Pink Wings, Walman had 43 factors however by no means had a chance in Detroit just like the one he’s obtained in San Jose.
Walman downplayed the emotional facet of his return after Pink Wings normal supervisor Steve Yzerman jettisoned him for nothing. However his coach stated it was human nature for any athlete to need to do nicely after being forged apart.
“There’s emotion and feelings that go into playing your former team,” coach Ryan Warsofsky stated. “Living here, growing up here, whatever it might be, you have to live through those feelings and mask them as best as you can, but you can’t cover up everything. The biggest thing for him is keeping his game simple, getting his legs into it.”
LINEUP CHANGES: Wennberg returned to the Sharks’ lineup Tuesday after lacking Saturday’s sport resulting from sickness. Wennberg now has 5 assists in his final 12 video games. With Wennberg returning, Carl Grundstrom got here out of the lineup. Vlasic re-entered the lineup and performed his 1,299th profession NHL sport after being a wholesome scratch for the final three video games. He changed Henry Thrun.
WINGS ON FIRE: Since former Sharks head coach Todd McLellan took over as Detroit’s bench boss on Dec. 26, the Pink Wings, earlier than Tuesday, had been 7-1-0 and two factors out of a playoff spot. A significant cause for the Wings’ success has been their energy play, which is 14-for-28 in the course of the group’s streak.
The Sharks killed each of the penalties they took in opposition to Detroit.
Initially Printed: January 14, 2025 at 6:34 PM PST
