San Jose Sharks Miscues Costly As Winning Streak Ends
The San Jose Sharks seemed poised to extend their winning streak to six games on Monday night, holding a 3-2 lead with about five minutes remaining in the third period and on the power play. Unfortunately, Brent Burns got caught out of position and hauled down Zack Smith leading to a penalty shot which he converted with a nice wrist shot past Alex Stalock.
With the game knotted up at three, San Jose was unable to convert on a power play opportunity in the overtime session, and Mika Zibanejad scored the lone goal in the shootout to give the Ottawa Senators a 4-3 victory and snap the Sharks’ five-game winning streak.
While San Jose extended their point streak to six games, this was a tough point to give away since the Sharks dominated this game for much of the night. In a fairly quiet 20 minutes, Ottawa struck first on a crucial misplay by Stalock. The Senators threw a long stretch pass that caromed off the boards, and Stalock tried to beat Max McCormick to the loose puck but McCormick won the race and deposited his second goal of the year.
It was a completely unnecessary play from Stalock as there wouldn’t have been much of a scoring chance if he remained between the pipes.
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In the second, Ottawa extended their lead with a fortunate break on the power play. After whipping the puck around nicely, Bobby Ryan found himself with time at the right faceoff circle and his shot tipped-in off Burns’ stick past Stalock for a 2-0 Senators lead.
The two-goal margin would be short-lived as the Sharks answered right back as Burns made a nice move to gain the zone, found Joe Thornton on the wing and Thornton hit a streaking Tomas Hertl with a perfect feed for an easy tap-in goal just eight seconds after Ryan’s tally. The goal was Hertl’s eighth of the season, and Thornton’s assist was his 927th of his career as he passed Stan Mikita for 17th on the all-time list.
The Sharks came out in the third and really took the game to the Senators, outshooting the visitors by a 9-3 margin in the final frame. Their early dominance in the third paid off as Logan Couture corralled a loose puck in the slot and surprised Craig Anderson with a shot that snuck in to tie things up at two.
Then, one of San Jose’s best goals of the season came from a trio of young players that executed a beautiful passing play. Chris Tierney gained the blue line, hit Joonas Donskoi who took the puck from between his legs and found a breaking Matt Nieto who deked to his backhand and slid the puck in behind Anderson to send the Tank a into a frenzy. It was a highlight-reel goal and one that appeared to be the game-winner on this night, but it was not to be.
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The Sharks did a lot of positives in this one, outshooting Ottawa by a 35-17 margin, but the miscues will remind this team that their execution and focus need to be on point at all times.
While the point is a nice consolation, these are the kinds of games that you don’t want to give away. San Jose is set up for a big matchup on Thursday night as they travel to take on the Arizona Coyotes in a key battle for second place within the division.