The Sharks held on for a hard-fought win against the Blues 5-4, earning three out of a possible four points in their miniseries in St. Louis.
The Sharks notched two goals in the first period, the first from Evander Kane and the second from Logan Couture. Kevin Labanc assisted on both first period goals.
Early in the second period, Rudolfs Balcers scores his first goal with the Sharks to take a 3-0 lead; Tomas Hertl got the assist on the Balcers goal. However, Brayden Schenn gets the Blues on the board about a minute later to trim their deficit to two. The Sharks answered back with Patrick Marleau's first of the year on a cross-ice pass from Evander Kane to get them back to a three-goal lead. Following Patty Marleau's first of the season were three consecutive goals from the Blues, scored by Zach Sanford, Ryan O'Reilly, and Jordan Kyrou, to tie it at four before the end of the second period.
Despite blowing their lead in the second, San Jose remained resilient and got the game winner in the middle of the third on Logan Couture's second goal of the game. Rudols Balcers may have appeared to deflect it in, but it was still Logan Couture's second of the game after it was concluded that the puck didn't make contact with Balcers' stick.
Although he allowed four goals in the second period, Devan Dubnyk got his first win with the Sharks, recording 28 saves in the process. This game was the fifth time the Sharks blew a multi-goal lead this season and the fourth time they won while doing so. In addition, Team Teal hasn't had a win yet where it was by a significant margin. Thankfully this game was won in regulation rather than overtime or shootout, but the primary focus is to get two points in any way, shape, or form regardless.
In addition, like the game on Thursday, there were a few missed calls and bad calls that didn't go in the Sharks' favor. The good news is that these mistakes by the referees didn't have a huge impact on the result of this game.
The Sharks' record now stands at 7-7-2, roughly one to two points out of a playoff spot. They begin an important eight-game homestand on Monday against the Wild at 7:30 pm PT.
In other news, although the Sharks weren't invited to play in the outdoor games at Lake Tahoe this weekend, the Sharks' PA announcer Danny Miller served as the PA announcer for those two outdoor games. It may have been a blessing in disguise for the Sharks to not be playing in Tahoe this weekend as the first game between the Golden Knights and Avalanche was delayed for nine hours after the first period due to poor ice conditions. The Avalanche had a 1-0 lead though one period of play before the game was delayed, and they were able to hang on and defeat the Golden Knights 3-2 in the first outdoor game at Lake Tahoe once it resumed at 9 pm PT. The second outdoor game at Lake Tahoe between the Bruins and Flyers is scheduled for Sunday at 4:30 pm PT.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL app
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