Team Teal displayed its resilience and came back late in this game once again, but they fell just short in the shootout as the Vegas Golden Knights would take this one 5-4 to close out the Sharks’ longest road trip of the season.
The Sharks got things going almost immediately, scoring the first goal 29 seconds in on Mario Ferraro’s first goal of the season, with assists from Kyle Burroughs and Mikael Granlund. The Golden Knights jumped ahead in the second period on goals from Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson. Anthony Duclair was upended in his jaw in the first period by Keegan Kolesar, resulting in Duclair leaving the game and being unable to return.
The Knights extended their lead to two early in the third period via Brayden McNabb, while the Sharks responded soon after on the power play via Mike Hoffman’s seventh goal of the season, with assists from Mikael Granlund and Kaapo Kahkonen. Later in the third period, Vegas went back up by two on Jonathan Marchessault’s second goal of the game, while the Sharks stormed back with two goals from Calen Addison and Mike Hoffman to tie it at four to force bonus hockey. The first goal of these last two was Addison’s first as a Shark, with assists from Justin Bailey and Filip Zadina. The equalizer by Hoffman was his second goal of the game and assisted by Tomas Hertl and Alexander Barabanov. There was a minor delay after the game-tying goal, as the NHL officially reviewed the play for a hand pass, but the goal stood and the review was a waste of time.
The deciding factor in this game came down to the shootout, in which Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault made their attempts with ease to win it for the Golden Knights.
Kaapo Kahkonen recorded a total of 23 saves on 27 shots against in the skills competition defeat. On the other hand, Henry Thrun was recalled from the Barracuda yesterday, while William Eklund was out due to a lower-body injury, and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic was out due to personal reasons.
Team Teal had outperformed their expectations and had an excellent road trip to their standards, finishing these past six games with a 3-2-1 record. This didn't end they way they would've wanted it to, but it's a stretch of games that they will build off of and look back on as a defining moment of the 2023-24 campaign. The Sharks return home on Tuesday to host the Winnipeg Jets at 7:30 pm PT before hitting the road again for a few more games.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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