Will Smith Scores Twice as the Sharks Beat the Blackhawks for Third Straight Win

It's a third straight win for the San Jose Sharks. They defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 at the Shark Tank thanks to a beautiful performance and Will Smith's first two NHL goals. Whatever that win in Utah did to this team has kicked them into gear. They've beaten Utah, Los Angeles, and now Chicago to move off the bottom of the NHL standings and up to 30th. They're only three points back of the playoff places, but with more games played than everyone around those spots, it's unlikely.

Will Smith's first career NHL goal opened the scoring. Cody Ceci kept the puck in at the edge of the zone, and Luke Kunin picked up the bouncing puck. Kunin fired a pass through the slot to Will Smith, who had all the time in the world to pick a corner. His snapshot found the net and the dam broke. Will Smith has his first NHL goal.

San Jose doesn't make things easy on their fanbase, but they won, so we'll let them off this time. Ryan Donato tied the score as the Sharks couldn't clear the Ilya Mikyehev pass into the slot. Donato was able to fire it past Blackwood, and the Sharks left their goaltender out to dry. We have a tie game because of those defensive frailties showing up again.

Before the end of the first period, Chicago would take the lead. A faceoff win got the puck back to Connor Murphy at the point. Blackwood saved his shot, but Tyler Bertuzzi won the race to the rebound, and it's 2-1 Blackhawks. It had been an open game to this point, so it never felt out of reach, but we've seen too many stories of this team fading after falling behind.

Thankfully, the San Jose Sharks were up for the fight. It would be one of the free agents leading the fight back as Jake Walman set up Fabian Zetterlund for a shot from the boards. It looked like Petr Mrazek had it covered in the Blackhawks' crease, but it trickled through, and Alex Wennberg would put it home to get this game back level and lead the Sharks to fight again.

There's an old saying about London buses. You wait three hours for one, then they turn up in bunches. So, when you've had Will Smith wait 11 games for his first goal, he had to have a two-goal game. The Sharks worked it down to Smith on the powerplay at the goal line. Smith drove the net and got it through the pads of Mrazek and into the net; despite the linesman trying to say it didn't go in, Smith had his second, and the Sharks led again.

From then on, the Sharks held the fort. Bending but not breaking, the Sharks have won three in a row. With Macklin Celebrini back on the ice practicing and Timothy Liljegren coming into the fold, this hockey club has optimism and confidence. Things are looking up, and the Sharks get to enjoy this feel-good factor