San Jose Sharks Take Down Bruins To Wrap Up Home Stand

Joonas Donskoi picked up his first game-winning goal for San Jose in their 3-2 win over Boston.

The San Jose Sharks wrapped up their three-game home stand by hosting one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference as the Boston Bruins came to town. San Jose would use solo goals in each period to secure a 3-2 victory over Boston in a highly entertaining contest between two of the league’s best teams at the moment.

The Sharks woukd strike first for the second consecutive game as Joonas Donskoi made a beautiful pass from behind the net to find Melker Karlsson alone in front who buried his ninth goal of the season to give the Sharks the 1-0 advantage midway through the first frame.

But the high-scoring Bruins would respond less than three minutes later as David Krejci deposited a rebound of a David Pastrnak shot for his 15th goal of the year to even things back up. It was the first even strength goal that James Reimer had allowed in three games manning the nets for team teal.

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Then, Boston would take advantage of a careless mistake from San Jose on the power play. Brent Burns’ pass was intercepted, and Loui Eriksson beat Reimer on the breakaway for his 27th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead after one.

The Sharks would begin the second on the front foot as they outshot Boston by a 11-7 margin in the middle frame as they looked to get back into the hockey game.

They would do just that at the 11:46 mark of the second when Burns’ shot-pass would deflect off the stick of Ryan Spooner past Tuukka Rask to tie things back up at two.

The goal was the 26th of the season for Burns which ties him with Sandis Ozolinsh for the most goals by a defenseman in a single season in Sharks history.

With the game tied at two heading into the final 20 minutes of play, the two teams were fairly reserved to kick things off. However, an undisciplined penalty by Jimmy Hayes for an illegal hit to the head of Justin Braun would give San Jose their third power play opportunity of the game.

After the first unit struggled to get any sustained pressure, the second unit would cash in when Burns fired a cross-ice pass to Joel Ward who fired a shot towards the gaping net that was tipped home by Donskoi in front for his 11th goal of the season to give the Sharks a one-goal lead once again.

It was a beautiful passing play and setup on one of the few times San Jose was able to get things set up in the offensive zone with the man advantage.

Following the go-ahead tally, Boston would put on a nice push but Reimer and the Sharks penalty killers did a nice job killing off the only penalty against San Jose in this one.

The Sharks were fortunate late in the third as following a turnover from Paul Martin, Krejci would hit the post as Reimer did everything he could to force Krejci wide on the mini break.

From then on, the San Jose defense and Reimer would stand tall as Reimer made a game-saving stop on Torey Krug with only 0.5 seconds remaining.

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It was another strong night of hockey at SAP Center by the boys in teal, and yet again, Reimer was outstanding in net to preserve the victory.

The Sharks were able to keep pace with the Kings within the Pacific Division and they narrowed the gap to just one point with the Ducks. San Jose is starting to find their rhythm on home ice at just the right time as they picked up two-straight home wins for just the second time this season.

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