I attended my second Sharks game this year, and although they lost to the New York Islanders 4-2, the experience was amazing and in many ways unlike any other Sharks game I have previously attended. Let’s begin:
The primary reason I was able to make it to two games at the Shark Tank is that I won free tickets to this game from a sweepstakes the Sharks held with Valley Water on Instagram about a month ago. I was notified two days prior by the Sharks that I was selected as the winner of this sweepstakes through a DM and was able to claim my tickets through a series of emails with a Sharks team representative.
Onto the game itself, the theme was Women of Teal night, especially since it landed on International Women’s Day, and I and every other fan in attendance received Women of Teal themed beanies. To not much surprise, I wore my free beanie throughout most of the game. Per usual, one of the first things I do after entering SAP Center before a game is head straight to the team store, in which I purchased a Macklin Celebrini shirt with him pictured on it and a “Are You Not Entertained?” caption above him. Next, my friend and I briefly met with a different friend of mine and his girlfriend who were also attending the game before heading to my seats for warmups. Before meeting up with them, I saw SJ Sharkie, the greatest mascot in sports, at the main concourse and could only give him shoulder pats while he was interacting with other fans, plus I had already met him once before at a different Sharks game.
Catching warmups is one of my favorite aspects of hockey games besides the actual game itself. It was great to see Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith in person for the second time, along with Henry Thrun being back on the ice from the injured reserve, and Vincent Desharnais and Patrick Giles each making their Sharks debuts. Onto the first period, the Sharks somehow managed to generate 20 shots on goal throughout the first frame, 17 of which were in the first ten minutes, but allow two goals from former Sharks forward Anthony Duclair and Jean-Gabriel Pageau on eight shots from the Islanders.
During the first intermission, my friend and I explored a section of the Tank I had never visited before: the club level, with more upscale food options, seating areas and cleaner bathrooms. This was pretty cool and added to this experience being more unique than others. The Sharks got on the board early in the second period on a power play goal tipped in by Nikolai Kovalenko for his sixth goal of the season on the initial shot by Shakir Mukhamadullin, with the secondary assist going to Macklin Celebrini. There was nearly a fight later in the second period between Barclay Goodrow and Alexander Romanov, but Romanov declined and it never materialized.
The Isles scored two more goals early in the third period via Anders Lee right off the faceoff dot and Adam Boqvist on the power play to gain their biggest lead of the night. Also worth noting that I had seen on the Jumbotron during a replay review in the final frame that one fan tried bribing the refs with money to try to sway their decision, which I found interesting. Lastly, with about one and a half minutes remaining in the contest, Will Smith scored a power play goal for his 12th goal of the season to narrow their deficit down to two and make the loss a bit easier to handle, with Macklin Celebrini and Alexander Wennberg assisting on the final goal of the game.
Alexandar Georgiev finished his night with 24 saves on 28 shots against. Despite outshooting the Islanders 40-28, the Sharks were unable to solve Ilya Sorokin for the most part. In addition, Macklin Celebrini’s ten shots on goal on 14 shot attempts in this contest set a Sharks rookie record.
Despite the unfavorable end result, many of the unique, unexpected, and awe-inspiring factors, especially the free tickets and parking pass, having the best view in the arena, and gaining club access for the first time, made attending my second Sharks game this season an unforgettable experience. The New York Islanders are now the eighth NHL team I have seen play in person, officially reaching the quarter mark towards accomplishing my life goal of attending games involving all 32 NHL teams. As for the Sharks specifically, their record now falls to 3-1-2 when I am at their games (three wins, one regulation loss, two overtime and shootout losses). I am certainly looking forward to attending my next Sharks/NHL game/experience in the near future, whenever that may be. In the meantime, the Sharks host the Nashville Predators in their next game on Tuesday at 7:30 pm PT.
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