Sharks Win Second Straight of Back-to Back

The San Jose Sharks are going streaking! 

After the San Jose Sharks opened their season losing nine games in a row, they responded by stringing together two consecutive wins in comeback fashion against the Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City, and outlasting in-state rival Los Angeles Kings 4-2 Tuesday night. 

Prior to their bout with the Kings, the Sharks had given up at least one goal in the first period in six of their last seven games, but San Jose was able to keep Los Angeles off the score sheet in the first.

2:20 into the second period, the Sharks initiated the scoring by recycling a successful formula from the night prior when they stole their first win of the season: firing shots from the point. 

Jake Walman scored his first goal as a member of the Sharks, but the good vibes didn’t last too long as the Kings answered 58 seconds later, as Akil Thomas scored his first goal of the season as well. 

In a game where the Sharks were outshot, bested in the faceoff circle, and took too many penalties again, their grit and ability to finish carried them to victory in one of their best third period performances of the season.

In their second straight game, the Sharks scored three goals in the third period. At 6:25, Fabian Zetterlund kept showing the NHL his 24 goal season a year ago was no fluke as he scored his sixth goal in 11 games on a fast break beating Kings netminder David Rittich glove side. 

Unfortunately, the Sharks let the Kings answer quick again. The Sharks coughed up the puck behind their own net, allowing Warren Foegele to dish the puck into the slot for Alex Laferriere’s fifth goal of the year beating Vitek Vanecek between the wickets. 

This is where the Sharks showed improvement from last year. When they seldom had a lead, it felt inevitable they would cough it up. The Kings responded quickly to both of the Sharks goals thus far, but the Sharks kept the pressure up saving their best period for last. 

San Jose decided to respond quickly themselves. After Walman laid a big hit to keep the puck from exiting the Kings zone, he collected it and hit Tyler Toffoli in stride who slipped in behind the defense to bury a backhander for the lead just north of two minutes after the Kings knotted the score. 

Instead of giving up the lead again, which happened far too many times a season ago, the Sharks would not be scored on again for the remaining 8:58 left in the game following Toffoli’s goal. The game was put on ice when William Eklund scored into the empty net at 19:22. 

The Sharks showed tremendous effort especially in the third period, but the game was won on special teams. Coming into the contest, the Sharks had superior numbers in both the power play and penalty kill, scoring at a 21.9% clip on the man advantage vs the Kings’ 15.6% and killing penalties at a 76.7% rate compared to LA’s 74.4%. 

The Sharks bad habit of taking too many penalties has plagued them this season and did again tonight as they took six penalties. The good news is they killed all six. Ignoring that the Kings killed all four of San Jose’s power plays, going 6/6 on the penalty kill has to be a positive for Sharks bench boss Ryan Warsofsky and his staff. 

The Sharks are beginning to piece together larger chunks of competent hockey which has eluded them for a few years now. In years past, it felt like it was a matter of when not if the Sharks would be overwhelmed by the opponent’s offense. Now, the Sharks have put together two straight games where they dug deep and found ways to win instead of finding more and more embarrassing ways to lose. 

Already, the Sharks look far more competitive through 11 games than they did for all of last season. There is plenty of season left, but the Sharks are demonstrating growth which is a breath of fresh air for a fanbase that has consumed crap for the entire 2020’s. 

The Sharks look to keep the good times rolling and extend their win streak to three when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks on Halloween night.