The Sharks snapped their season-long eight-game skid Monday night as they defeated the Coyotes 6-4 in their first home game in front of fans in over a year.
It only took 17 seconds for the Sharks to score the first goal of the game by Noah Gregor. Gregor was almost behind the net when he shot the puck and caught Darcy Kuemper off guard. A few minutes later, Brent Burns scores from the blue line to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead early in this one. Evander Kane may have appeared to tip in the second goal, but he ended up getting an assist on the play along with Tomas Hertl.
Early in the second period, Logan Couture scores off the rebound, and Erik Karlsson launches one from the point to go up 4-0. Greg Pateryn gets his first point as a Shark on the Cooch goal, while Timo Meier is credited with the secondary assist on that play, which happens to be his 100th NHL assist. In addition, Evander Kane tallies his second assist of the night on the Karlsson goal. However, the Coyotes begin to mount a comeback in the second period by scoring the next three from Michael Bunting, Clayton Keller, and Jacob Chychrun to get within one early in the third.
Later in the third, Alexander Barabanov scores his first NHL goal to go back up by two, with Evander Kane getting his third assist of the night and Tomas Hertl getting his second assist of the night. Barabanov basically had an empty net in front of him when scoring his first NHL goal and what was essentially the game-winner. Following Barabanov's goal was Jacob Chychrun's second goal of the game to put the Coyotes within one again. Evander Kane sealed the deal with about a minute remaining in the third with an empty-netter for his fourth point of the night. Mario Ferraro tallied the lone assist on the Kane empty-netter.
Josef Korenar records his first NHL win Monday night, making 21 saves on 25 shots against. He also becomes the youngest Sharks goalie to record his first NHL win at 23 years, 85 days.
Other notable lineup changes include Ryan Donato and Kevin Labanc not playing in this one due to injury.
Overall, this was a huge and much-needed win for Team Teal, and having some fans in attendance at SAP Center was a huge contributing factor in the Sharks ending their long losing streak. Hopefully San Jose can build on this win for the rest of the season as they continue to prepare for next season. The second game in this two-game set is tomorrow night at 7:30 pm PT.
In other news, Patrick Marleau was named the NHL's First Star of the Week for last week alongside clinical nurse educator generalist Jane Vergara of San Jose. It was also announced today that the NHL has reached a seven-year multimedia deal with Turner Sports beginning for the 2021-22 season, who will be the NHL's second national broadcast partner in the US alongside ESPN starting next season.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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