The Sharks returned home and ended their five-game winless skid in a lengthy battle with the New York Islanders, resulting in a 3-2 Sharks shootout victory.
The Islanders struck first via Ben Hutton early in the first period. Later in the opening period, Ivar Stenberg redirected a shot from Tyler Toffoli for his sixth goal of the season to even things up at one. Ty Dellandrea assisted on this equalizer as well. Early in the second period, the Islanders went back ahead on a power play goal by Victor Eklund, while the Sharks tied the game at two later in the middle frame on Tyler Toffoli’s fifth goal of the season, assisted by Dmitry Orlov and Eric Pohlkamp. Some fireworks occurred near the end of the second period, specifically two fights between Barclay Goodrow and Mitchell Chaffee, along with Ty Dellandrea and Kyle MacLean. These were in response to MacLean laying a hit on Ivar Stenberg after Stenberg dumped a pass into the zone.
This contest had to be decided in a shootout, where Ivar Stenberg scored the only goal of the skills competition in the eighth round to finally get Team Teal back in the win column.
Yaroslav Askarov performed well tonight and gained the upper hand over Ilya Sorokin in the shootout, recording 30 saves on 32 shots against. In addition, Alexander Wennberg is back on the Sharks roster from injured reserve, while Filip Bystedt was re-assigned to the Barracuda as a result.
Overall, this is a massive and relieving victory for the Sharks to snap their rough stretch once and for all. Ivar Stenberg had arguably his best game in the NHL so far, and getting Alexander Wennberg back from injury was a huge boost to this Sharks team. I have also gained more confidence in this being the start of the Sharks turning their season around and getting back into playoff contention. Next up, the Sharks host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday at 7 pm PT.
Sources: Sharks Audio Network, NHL App, Curtis Pashelka via X
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