A miraculous comeback in the third period propels the Sharks to their first win of the season in a 5-4 overtime victory over the Utah Hockey Club.
The Utah Hockey Club gained a 2-0 lead late in the first period on goals from Dylan Guenther and Matias Maccelli. The beginning of the opening period before Utah scored twice featured a good ol’ tilt between Givani Smith and Liam O’Brien at center ice, which from my understanding was pre-coordinated to occur right after faceoff.
Early in the second period, Fabian Zetterlund got the Sharks on the board and back in this game, with assists from Danil Gushchin and Henry Thrun, only for Utah to regain their two-goal lead soon after on Matias Maccelli’s second goal of the game. With seconds remaining in the middle frame, Mikhail Sergachev scored to give Utah a 4-1 lead for the Hockey Club’s biggest lead of the night so far.
Entering the third period, it seemed as if the losing skid to begin the season was bound to reach double digits again like last year, but the Sharks remained resilient. The miracle comeback began at around the 15-and-a-half-minute mark of the third period when Fabian Zetterlund deflected a shot by Mikael Granlund for his second goal of the game, with Jake Walman recording the secondary assist. Seconds later, a similar setup play led to Mikael Granlund scoring his fifth goal of the year to cut the Sharks deficit to one, with Jake Walman and William Eklund collecting the assists. Just over a minute after, Tyler Toffoli came through with his fifth goal of the season to tie the game at four, with assists from Jake Walman and Alexander Wennberg, marking a career-high three-assist night for Walman.
The three late-period goals in the third forced overtime, where a clear hooking penalty on Michael Kesselring against William Eklund led to a 4-on-3 man advantage for the Sharks, in which Alexander Wennberg scores his first goal of the season to complete the incredible comeback and earn the Sharks a massive first win of the season. Mikael Granlund and Tyler Toffoli assisted on the OT game-winner by Wennberg.
Mackenzie Blackwood was in net for San Jose’s first win of the season, recording 19 saves on 23 shots against.
Another feat worth noting from the Sharks’ first win of the 2024-25 campaign is that Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky became the fourth-youngest head coach in NHL history since 2000 to earn his first big-league win. This was certainly the best Sharks game I watched all season, and it had an electric playoff and emotional roller coaster feel to it, especially in the third period when the comeback was underway. In addition, we can all be grateful that it took one less game than it did last season for the Sharks to earn their first win of the season. Hope this team can seriously build on this miraculous first victory and form at least a bit of a win streak from here. The Sharks return to action at home tomorrow night, hosting the Los Angeles Kings at 7 pm PT in the second game of a nationally-televised doubleheader on ESPN.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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