Despite it being mostly a goaltending duel and allowing the Predators to tie at the last second of regulation, the Sharks get the job done in the shootout in a 3-2 victory to begin their six-game road trip.
This game begins with some fireworks, specifically a fight between Zack Ostapchuk and Nic Hague. A few minutes later, Mason Marchment scored his second goal of the season to put the Sharks on the board first, assisted by Tyler Toffoli and Alexander Wennberg. Fast forward to the third period, where the Sharks extended their lead to two on Will Smith’s third goal of the season, assisted by Michael Kesselring and Igor Chernyshov. A bit later in the final frame, a power play goal by Ryan O’Reilly put the Predators on the board and within one. With 0.4 seconds remaining in regulation, a miraculous goal by Steven Stamkos on a broken play ties the game at two to force overtime and a shootout. Fortunately, the Sharks find another way to win after getting to extra time, with Macklin Celebrini scoring on his shootout attempt sealing the victory for Team Teal in the Music City.
Alex Nedeljkovic made his second start of the season in net for the Sharks and remained excellent, recording 32 saves on 34 shots against. In addition, the only other lineup change made to the Sharks for this first of six consecutive road games was Nolan Allan drawing back onto the blue line, this time in place of Darnell Nurse, who got injured during a fight in Tuesday’s loss at home to the Bruins.
Overall, the Sharks performed amazingly in this contest in Nashville for the most part, and it was great for them to bounce back from their last two home games and start their current lengthy road trip the right way. Team Teal was extremely close to earning its first regulation win of the season tonight, but thankfully they were still able to come out on top of this one in the skills competition. In addition, Alex Nedeljkovic should be starting more games for the Sharks going forward. The Sharks will have an even better opportunity to get their first regulation win of the season when they travel to Detroit to face the Red Wings in their next game on Saturday at 4 pm PT.
Sources: Sharks Audio Network, NHL App, Curtis Pashelka via X
You can further support my blog by checking out my merch here: CPF Store
No comments:
Post a Comment