The Sharks came back and made things interesting in the third period, but it wasn’t enough as a disastrous first period ultimately led to their 8-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins to begin the road trip and the 2022 calendar year.
This game was off to a rough start as the Sharks gave up four goals quickly in approximately the first six minutes. Two of the first four goals were from Evan Rodrigues, while the other two were from Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust. The Sharks were able to salvage one in the first period via Alexander Barabanov, getting assists from Timo Meier and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic. The Pens continued to fire on all cylinders, scoring two more from Kasper Bjorkvist and Bryan Rust to make it 6-1 Pittsburgh through one period of play.
James Reimer recorded 11 saves and gave up six goals before getting replaced by Zach Sawchenko in net, who made his NHL debut to start the second period. The Sharks got another goal back on the power play in the second period via Brent Burns, getting assists from Nick Bonino and Noah Gregor. This was the first of four unanswered goals from the Sharks to storm back into the game. The next three came early in the final frame via Matt Nieto, Jake Middleton, and Logan Couture. The Nieto goal was banked off of the boards, deflected off of Casey DeSmith, and into the net. Jake Middleton deflected a shot from Erik Karlsson to cut the Sharks’ deficit to two. Couture then buries one to get the Sharks within one on his 800th NHL game.
However, Evan Rodrigues and Bryan Rust each scored late in the third period to complete their hat tricks and thwart any further comeback efforts from Team Teal.
Timo Meier added two more assists in the third period for three assists against the Penguins in this game. Jake Middleton and Andrew Cogliano each added assists on the third period goals as well.
Zach Sawchenko was solid in relief of James Reimer in his NHL debut and almost performed like a veteran NHL goalie in the last two periods, recording 20 saves.
Despite being on the wrong end of this game, this wasn’t as bad of a loss as it would’ve been had there been a repeat of the first two periods in the third period. This Sharks team showed plenty of resiliency in the third period, and if they can keep this up, this will set them up well to win more games against tough opponents. I applaud the Sharks for their comeback efforts in this game, but the Pens were simply better in this one, especially right out of the gate.
In other news, Adin Hill is now out of COVID protocol and plans to make a start with the Barracuda in the AHL before rejoining the Sharks later in their current road trip.
San Jose continues its current Eastern road trip with the next stop in Detroit against the Red Wings on Tuesday at 4:30 pm PT.
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