Sharks 2023-24 Game 17 Recap: Sharks 5, Blues 1 (11/16/23)

 The Sharks earn their third win of the season and put up their best output on offense all season, defeating the St. Louis Blues 5-1. 

The Sharks score first early in the first period via Mike Hoffman on a great pass by Nico Sturm, with Filip Zadina recording his first assist of the season on this goal as well. The scoring didn’t stop there, as Team Teal would score the next three goals early in the second period. The first of these next three came from William Eklund deflecting a shot from Nikita Okhotiuk. The second of these three was Givani Smith’s first goal as a Shark and first goal in 39 games, becoming the 300th different goal-scorer in Sharks franchise history, with Luke Kunin and Ryan Carpenter recording the assists on the Givani Smith goal. The third of these early in the second came via Luke Kunin from Givani Smith and Ryan Carpenter, leading the Blues to pull Joel Hofer from their net in favor of Jordan Binnington. The onslaught on offense by the Sharks in the middle frame was capped off later in the period after Mike Hoffman scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway to make in 5-0 Sharks, with assists from Filip Zadina and Nikita Okhotiuk. 

The Blues’ only goal of the game came in the third period on a redirection by Pavel Buchnevich. 

Kaapo Kahkonen had his best performance in net this season, recording a total of 44 saves on 45 shots against. In addition, Kyle Burroughs and Anthony Duclair were back in the lineup tonight, while Marc-Eduoard Vlasic and Kevin Labanc were healthy scratches. 

It’s great to see the Sharks step up their offense and goaltending and put together their best performance of the season so far. They need all the positive momentum they can get, and hope the Sharks can string together a decent-sized win streak in their next stretch of games. Team Teal has the entire weekend off, which is unusual for them, and resume action on Monday on the road in Vancouver against the Canucks at 7 pm PT. 

Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App 

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