It was practically all Tampa Bay Lightning in the Sharks’ road trip finale, as Brandon Hagel led the way with three points in a 4-1 Bolts victory.
The Sharks struck first late in the opening period on a deflection by Tyler Toffoli for his 14th goal of the season, assisted by William Eklund and Alex Wennberg. The Lightning followed that up seconds later on a tip-in by Brandon Hagel to tie the game at one. Tampa Bay took over early in the second period with two goals from Anthony Cirelli and Jake Guentzel to go ahead 3-1. The Bolts added one more goal late in the third period, an empty-netter from Brandon Hagel for his second goal of the game, to give Tampa a three-goal advantage and put this one to bed.
Yaroslav Askarov recorded 16 saves on 19 shots against in the second game of the Sharks’ fourth consecutive back-to-back set. Besides goaltending, the only other lineup change for the Sharks in tonight’s game compared to last night’s victory over the Panthers is Adam Gaudette in for Igor Chernyshov.
I expected this contest to be a scheduled loss for the Sharks. This is considering how much of a juggernaut the Tampa Bay Lightning are, and the fact that the Lightning have had the Sharks’ number for at least the past few seasons. It certainly delivered on those expectations, but at least the Sharks didn’t get blown out by the Bolts like they did when these two teams last faced each other earlier this month at SAP Center. In addition, I am grateful the Sharks will not have to play in any more back-to-backs until after the Olympic break. Team Teal hosts the New York Rangers in their last home game before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Friday at 7 pm PT.
Sources: NBC Sports California, Sharks Audio Network, San Jose Hockey Now, NHL App
No comments:
Post a Comment