The Sharks continue to struggle as they lose to the Ducks 4-1 and get swept in this two-game set to close out their current homestand and their season series against Anaheim.
Most of this game had flashes of Monday night's contest. Ryan Getzlaf returned to the Ducks lineup Wednesday night and scored early in the first period to give the Ducks an early 1-0 lead. Evander Kane appeared to be limping and in a lot of pain before the end of the first period, but luckily he was able to return in the second. Anaheim added two more goals in the third from Derek Grant and Alex Volkov.
Towards the beginning of the third, the Ducks appeared to have scored when a large scrum broke out between the Sharks and Ducks. The end of the scrum saw Dylan Gambrell and Josh Manson drop the gloves in the first tilt of the game. In addition, the Sharks challenged this goal for goaltender interference and were successful, keeping the Ducks three-goal advantage intact. The second fight went down roughly five minutes later involving Radim Simek and Troy Terry. The last fight of the game occurred with about six minutes remaining, between Simek and Max Comtois.
Logan Couture had to have his hand examined with roughly three and a half minutes remaining after getting hit into the boards by Sam Steel, which clipped Couture's hand in the process. It wasn't until the 17:44 mark in the final frame that Erik Karlsson went five-hole from near the blue line to finally put the Sharks on the scoreboard. Timo Meier and Brent Burns got the assists on the Sharks' lone goal of the game. The Ducks answered back on the power play with 30 seconds left in regulation on a goal by Jakob Silfverberg to put this game away for good.
Josef Korenar made his first NHL start in net Wednesday night, making 23 saves. Although Korenar made some great stops, the Sharks' lackluster defense didn't give him much support in his first big-league start. Some of the forward lines were shifted around before the start of this game, but that didn't seem to improve the Sharks' performance from Monday night.
Overall, the Sharks' last miniseries with the Ducks this season was deflating. Their past seven games with their So Cal rivals was the Sharks' chance to put themselves away from the Blues and Coyotes for the fourth playoff spot in the West Division, but they failed to do so. On the bright side, the Sharks avoided a shutout in the second game of this miniseries and won the season series with their Orange County rivals 4-3-1. San Jose departs on a four-game road trip starting Friday, in which they will face the Wild in Minnesota for a two-game set through Saturday. Puck drop for both Friday's and Saturday's games are at 5 pm PT. Following the weekend miniseries in Minnesota, the Sharks will face the Golden Knights in Vegas for a two-game set on Monday and Wednesday. Things aren't going to get any easier for Team Teal after getting swept at home by the Ducks, but they need to get it together soon if they want to save their season.
In other news, the Sharks-Golden Knights game originally scheduled for Friday, April 23 at SAP Center will now be the Sharks' 2021 season finale. It has been rescheduled to Monday, May 10 at 6 pm PT in San Jose, which is completely fine with me.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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