The Sharks needed eight rounds in the shootout to settle this one against the Wild, winning 4-3.
Leading up to the shootout, San Jose had scored in every period. The first Sharks goal was a blast from the point from Radim Simek. It also appeared as if Dylan Gambrell had deflected the puck on its way to the net on that play, but it is credited as Simek's goal until further notice. Ryan Donato got the second assist on the first goal.
Jeffrey Viel made his NHL debut versus the Wild Monday night and dropped the gloves with Luke Johnson in his second shift of the game. Viel is one of three players in Sharks history to record a fight in his NHL debut, joining Brad Staubitz and Jeff Odgers.
Patrick Marleau has now passed Mark Messier for second on the NHL all-time games played list skating in his 1,757th game. After Patty completed his first shift on the ice in the first period, this feat was recognized by Danny Miller, the Sharks' PA announcer, and by stick taps from both the Sharks and Wild benches. It would've been more lively had there been fans in attendance at SAP Center.
The Wild had scored two goals of their own in the first to lead 2-1 at the first intermission. The first one was from Marcus Johansson while the second one was from Nick Bonino.
The difference-maker in this game was Erik Karlsson's two goals during regulation, specifically one in the second and one in the third. The first EK65 goal in the second came off a beautiful feed from Evander Kane, while the second EK65 goal in the third was a clapper from the blue line. Ryan Donato got his second assist of the game on Erik Karlsson's second goal of the game, while Dylan Gambrell recorded the secondary assist on that same goal. This is Erik Karlsson's first two-goal game as a Shark.
What led to overtime and and a shootout was Kevin Fiala's game-tying goal for the Wild minutes after Erik Karlsson's second goal of the game. This was created by a turnover by Tomas Hertl in the Sharks' own end of the ice.
The Sharks' best chance in overtime was a shot from Timo Meier that hit the crossbar. In addition, the Wild almost won the game, but luckily what would've been the game-winner was waved off due to a high touch on the play.
Onto the shootout. In the second and third rounds, Logan Couture and Kevin Labanc scored on their attempts, while Kevin Fiala and Mats Zuccarello evened things up by scoring on their attempts. It wasn't until the eighth round that Erik Karlsson took the slapshot approach and scored the game-winner, which was absolutely amazing. This would technically mean he scored a hat trick, but it didn't officially count as one.
Martin Jones was solid in net, stopping 22 of 25 shots against. Another great thing about Monday night's game is that the Sharks stayed out of penalty trouble, which has been an issue for them in several games this season. They did, however, draw one penalty in the second on a puck-over-the-glass delay of game by the Wild.
Overall, the Sharks had a great effort in this game. Hopefully Team Teal can continue to perform well heading into the second game of this miniseries on Wednesday at 7:30 pm PT.
I certainly want to see more performances like this from Erik Karlsson and more consistency in his game, which is very possible, but we'll have to wait and see.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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