Saturday afternoon's Sharks-Avalanche game was not only my third game at the Tank this season, but one of the most epic hockey games I have ever attended. Before diving into the game itself, I must first mention that its promotional theme was Native American Heritage, and I and all other fans in attendance received free artist-designed bandanas. These looked nice but served no real purpose to me other than purely being a collector's item. As per usual, I headed straight for the team store once inside the arena, but this time I purchased a warmup puck for this particular game. My main takeaways from warmups were that it was great seeing Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and the Colorado Avalanche in person and Cale's younger brother Taylor make his NHL debut. In addition, I did not see Sam Dickinson or Ryan Reaves on the ice, as Dickinson was a healthy scratch and Reaves is day-to-day with an injury. I also tried one of SAP Center's more unique food options at this game, a barbecue beef brisket sandwich with the house mac and cheese, and they were definitely worth it.
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Now onto the game itself, the Avalanche came out of the gate firing, as Martin Necas scored 30 seconds into the first period to put themselves on the board rather quickly. Later in the first period, Timothy Liljegren took a flying puck to the face while on the Sharks bench and had to exit the game as a result. With just over a minute and a half remaining in the opening period, Macklin Celebrini scored an absolute beauty of a goal for his seventh of the season to extend his point streak to seven games, with assists from Tyler Toffoli and Shakir Mukhamadullin. Early in the second period, Philipp Kurashev scored his fourth goal of the season to retake the lead for the Sharks, with assists from Ty Dellandrea and John Klingberg. About five minutes later, the Avalanche tied the game at two on a goal that would be awarded to Nathan MacKinnon. It was originally waved off after Jeff Skinner crashed into and dislodged the net prior to the goal being scored, but after further review, the officials determined that it was a good goal, which I and the rest of the SAP Center crowd were not pleased with.
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During the second intermission, I spotted someone that I actively watch his content online known as TrevsChirps in a section below where I was seated, so I went to the lower bowl to meet him, and this interaction certainly made my day on top of attending this game. This also would not have been possible had I not noticed him from where I was seated ahead of time. The contest remained even at two until overtime, but it is worth noting that Yaroslav Askarov made one of his most impressive saves of the day in the third period when poking away a shot by Parker Kelly on a wide open net, causing the puck to go high and wide. In addition, Macklin Celebrini danced through defenders and got tripped up during a play, but his shot missed the net. However, if he somehow scored there, it would have been one of the most impressive and unreal goals of the year. Now onto overtime, where Philipp Kurashev scored his second goal of the game and fifth goal of the season to win it for the Sharks over a top-tier, Stanley Cup-contending Colorado Avalanche team, with Alex Wennberg getting the lone assist on the Kurashev OT winner.
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Yaroslav Askarov had is best performance of the season so far, recording 37 saves on 38 shots against. As reflected in the 3 stars of the game, he along with Philipp Kurashev and Macklin Celebrini were undoubtedly the Sharks' top players and key factors in their second straight win and third win in their past four contests. Based on this team's recent level of play, the Sharks certainly have what it takes to extend their hot streak even further. Overall, this close win for San Jose over a high-powered Colorado Avalanche team that the Sharks were not favored against was one of the best games I have ever attended. The Avs are now the 13th NHL team I have had the privilege of seeing play in person, and the Sharks now improve to 4-4-3 when I am at their games. Next up, San Jose hosts the Detroit Red Wings in the second of back-to-back weekend games tonight at 5 pm PT.
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