The Sharks ring in the new year by snapping their eight-game winless skid, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1.
Team Teal struck first late in the first period on a beautiful goal by Tyler Toffoli for his 15th of the season, assisted by Marc-Eduoard Vlasic in his season debut and Jan Rutta. The Sharks picked up where they left off late in the second period, extending their lead to two on Mario Ferraro’s third goal of the season. Mikael Granlund assisted on what would be the game-winning goal by Ferraro for San Jose, breaking his longest scoring drought of the season so far. About five minutes after, Anthony Cirelli got the Bolts on the board with his 15th goal of the season to cut the Sharks’ lead back down to one.
Yaroslav Askarov had an outstanding performance in net for the Sharks, recording 24 saves on 25 shots he faced. He wasn’t tested too much tonight, but his best effort came with just under 16 minutes remaining in the third period, when he made a spectacular diving stop to rob Nick Paul of a sure goal. It is also worth noting that Mario Ferraro dropped the gloves with Mitchell Chaffee, his former teammate at UMass Amherst, in the first period after a hit on Nikolai Kovalenko. This put Super Mario two-thirds of the way towards a Gordie Howe hat trick. Earlier today, Carl Grundstrom was placed on IR, while Marc-Eduoard Vlasic was moved to the active roster and made his season debut tonight against the Lightning after a lengthy absence due to injury.
Overall, this was a sweet revenge win for Team Teal after they were blown out by the Lightning 8-1 in Tampa during their first meeting early last month, and boy did they need this one badly. Askarov’s brilliance in net and great performances from their two longest-tenured defensemen were the biggest factors in fueling the Sharks finally ending their eight-game losing streak. Next up, the Sharks host the New Jersey Devils in an afternoon matinee on Saturday at 1 pm PT. Keep in mind that this next game recap will be more of a personal experience post and released later than expected since I will be in attendance for the Sharks’ next game on Saturday, so definitely be on the lookout for that soon.
Sources: Sharks Audio Network, NHL App, Curtis Pashelka via X
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