The first meeting of the season between the Sharks and Ducks was highlighted by a high-scoring affair and an Erik Karlsson hat trick. However, the Sharks were on the wrong end of this one, losing to the Ducks 6-5 in a shootout.
There were lots of good in this game for the Sharks, and they could've won this game, but it all came down to the shootout. This historic night wasn't deserving of its end result, but we'll get to that specifically in a bit. Early on before the scoring began, Evgeny Svechnikov took a puck to the face when blocking a shot, but luckily he was fine and stayed in the game. As for the scoring, it began by the Ducks about five minutes into the first period via Adam Henrique. About a minute later, Erik Karlsson scores the first of his three goals of the game, with assists from Evgeny Svechnikov and Tomas Hertl. EK65 tallies the second of his three goals of the game seconds later to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead, this time getting assists from Jaycob Megna and Nico Sturm. It's possible that Sturm may have last touched the puck before Erik Karlsson's second goal found the back of the net, but the official scoring was changed to reflect that it was indeed EK65 who scored it. The Ducks added two more in the first period via Frank Vatrano and Adam Henrique's second goal of the game for the Ducks to go ahead 3-2 through one period of play.
Team Teal continued to produce and score in alternating fashion, with Timo Meier scoring his first goal of the game and second goal of the season on the power play. In the process, he was tripped up at the blue line, but stayed with it the entire time to score this spectacular goal. Alexander Barabanov and Erik Karlsson picked up assists on the first Timo Time goal. Late in the second period, Ryan Strome scored to put the Ducks ahead 4-3, only for Jakob Silfverberg to put one in his own net seconds after, which was credited as Timo Meier's second goal of the game. In addition, Luke Kunin and Nathan Beaulieu fought early in the third period after Kunin laid a clean hit and Beaulieu went after Kunin to stick up for his teammate.
During the second half of the third period, Max Comtois put the Ducks up 5-4, while Erik Karlsson tied the game at five about six minutes later with his third goal of the game to complete his first career hat trick. Tomas Hertl and Alexander Barabanov picked up the assists on Erik Karlsson's third goal of the game. About 30 seconds after this occurred, fans at SAP Center realized that EK65 recorded a hat trick, so the raining of hats onto the ice was a tad delayed. Karlsson also became the first Sharks defenseman to score a hat trick last night. In addition, this would force overtime and a shootout.
As for the shootout, it started off pretty well with Logan Couture going five-hole and scoring during the Sharks' first attempt, only for Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry to score on the next two attempts for the Ducks. Erik Karlsson could've kept this game going in the shootout with his attempt, as it would be even more fitting and amazing if he had scored there, but he was stopped at the doorstep by Anthony Stolarz to seal the victory for the Ducks.
Kaapo Kahkonen received the nod in net last night, recording 39 saves on 44 shots against.
Despite the undesirable end result, the Sharks still picked up a point, and this game had the elements of a classic. Next up, the Sharks host the Florida Panthers at SAP Center on Thursday at 7:30 pm PT before they host the Ducks again in a matter of days on Saturday.
Sources: ESPN, NHL App
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