SAN JOSE – It’s robust to say the place the San Jose Sharks could be within the Western Convention standings proper now — on the halfway level of the season — if that they had held onto a few of the third-period leads that they had final month.
Would they really be within the combine for a playoff spot as a substitute of close to the underside of the NHL standings?
From the Sharks’ standpoint, dwelling on the previous might be ineffective. What’s executed is completed.
However the Sharks would like to bottle up their third-period effort from Thursday, once they, other than two or three sequences, appeared considerably extra composed in their very own finish in defending a one-goal lead.
Rookie goalie Yaroslav Askarov definitely did his half, making 11 saves — together with a dynamic cease on Nick Paul — over the ultimate 20 minutes because the Sharks preserved a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. San Jose additionally killed a third-period roughing penalty to Macklin Celebrini.
The Sharks’ win snapped their second-longest eight-game shedding streak of the season. It additionally gave the group a badly wanted dose of confidence as they lastly held onto a late lead towards a playoff-caliber crew, with video games towards the equally harmful New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights on the close to horizon.
“I think we when we realized when they got a couple looks off of turnovers, we nipped it in the bud, and we didn’t let it continue to unravel,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky mentioned. “We kept our composure. We understood what was going on in the hockey game. We matured a lot tonight.”
In December, the Sharks held and misplaced third-period results in Utah, Winnipeg, Colorado, Edmonton, and Vegas, in that order. In these 5 video games, the Sharks managed only one level, with that coming of their 3-2 additional time loss to the Oilers on Dec. 21. That was solely due to Askarov’s distinctive 39-save efficiency at Rogers Place.
However whereas the Sharks (12-23-6) left 9 factors on the desk throughout that stretch, the necessary half was that they lastly realized from these errors and must be a greater crew for it down the street. In addition they caught collectively throughout some robust occasions.
Thursday, whereas the Sharks nonetheless gave a handful of high quality scoring probabilities, they competed tougher all around the ice and did a greater job of ending performs of their zone.
“We’ve been in this situation a lot during this little skid that we went through here, a lot of opportunities to close it out,” mentioned Sharks alternate captain and defenseman Mario Ferraro, who scored a aim and fought his faculty teammate, Mitchell Chaffee, after Chaffee’s questionable second interval hit on Nikolai Kovalenko.
“But tonight, I just thought we kept pushing when we could. Even after the (third period) penalty kill, we kept trying to do our thing. Yeah, they got their chances. … But I thought we did a much better job tonight, as opposed to other nights, of playing with a little more confidence and not really thinking about just winning, but doing what it takes to win, getting pucks deep, and we did a much better job of that in the third today.”
The Sharks additionally fed off Askarov, who appeared totally unfazed below Tampa Bay’s strain as he competed towards one of many goalies he admires in Russian countryman Vasilevskiy.
“It was super exciting playing against him,” Askarov mentioned of Vasilevskiy, who had 23 saves. “He was standing on his head tonight, too. Like, how many breakaways we had? He was good.”
“Funny guy. We get along really well. We joke around,” mentioned Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic of Askarov, who’s now 2-2- 2 this season with a. 921 save share. “He’s very confident out there. I love that he loves to play the puck. Nice kid, good kid, and very good.”
Vlasic had simply 11:56 of ice time in his first recreation of the season. However he appeared comfy for essentially the most half and has one thing to construct on because the second half of the season will get underway.
“It felt like I was playing my first NHL game,” Vlasic mentioned. “It was a lot of fun. I had a blast coming back, playing against a great team and playing with these guys. We played well tonight. Made my job easier coming back. We had energy, excitement.”
Warsofsky had two of his rookies, Celebrini and Collin Graf, on the ice for the ultimate 30 seconds of the sport, displaying some belief within the younger guys, particularly Graf, to assist end off the win.
“Mack can make plays under pressure,” Warsofsky mentioned. “That’s something I’ve developed in my coaching: sometimes you’ve got to go with guys that can make plays (defending a) 6-on-5, and I think Mack can do that.
“I thought Graf had a really good, solid hockey game where we could trust him. He was doing things away from the puck that we really need to focus on. And he’s smart. He’s a smart individual, so when I called his name, he was a little surprised, but he did a good job.”
The Sharks arrive on the season’s halfway level in thirty first place within the league standings. Maybe they need to have greater than 30 factors at this juncture, however they’re hoping Thursday’s win generally is a springboard to raised issues, particularly if they’ll develop a blueprint for closing out video games.
“When you don’t get the result, when you struggle, you (need to) dig in deep, and our guys did that,” Warsofsky mentioned. “Proud of the guys. The leadership group did a really good job I thought, of getting our younger guys prepared and getting the whole group ready for 60 minutes. So it was good.”
Initially Revealed: January 3, 2025 at 12:38 AM PST
