Sharks lose 4-1 to Wild; Celebrini passes Falloon for 20th on goals list
San Jose's penalty kill gave up two power-play goals in a 4-1 loss at Minnesota, and its own 0-for-3 power play left the Sharks without a way back.
The Sharks lost 4-1 to the Minnesota Wild on Friday, and the special teams split decided it. Minnesota went 2 for 5 on the power play. San Jose went 0 for 3.
The numbers that mattered
- Wild power play: 2 goals on 5 chances (40.0%)
- Sharks power play: 0 goals on 3 chances
- Sharks penalties: 5 for 10 minutes, against 3 for 6 minutes for Minnesota
The shot count was close. The Sharks put 24 shots on net to Minnesota's 28, and the Wild's power-play goals did the rest. Per the highlight video, the first Minnesota goal came on a 5-on-3.
How it unfolded
Kirill Kaprizov opened the scoring at 7:55 of the first, a snap shot on that 5-on-3 with assists from Quinn Hughes and Matt Boldy. San Jose trailed 1-0 after one.
The Sharks found the equalizer at 12:11 of the second. Dmitry Orlov fired from the point and Macklin Celebrini tipped it past Jesper Wallstedt, with Will Smith getting the second assist. It was 1-1.
That lasted 2:04. At 14:15, Maxim Shabanov redirected a Kaprizov pass on another power play to make it 2-1. In the third, Hughes scored on a wrist shot at 6:54 for 3-1, and Zach Bogosian added a slap shot at 13:58 for the 4-1 final. Bogosian's was his first goal of the season.
Standouts
Celebrini's goal was his seventh of the season and his 77th as a Shark. That passes Pat Falloon (76) for 20th on the franchise's all-time list. Next ahead are Kevin Labanc (82), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (84) and Devin Setoguchi (84). He is 20 years old and played in his 168th NHL game. He logged 24:59, took 6 shots and won 16 of 28 faceoffs.
Smith, 21, picked up an assist in his 161st NHL game. Orlov had the other assist and finished plus-1.
Yaroslav Askarov stopped 24 of 28 shots (.857). Darnell Nurse blocked 5 shots in 22:38.
For Minnesota, Kaprizov finished with 1 goal and 3 assists, and Hughes had 1 goal and 2 assists in 31:00 of ice time. Wallstedt stopped 23 of 24 (.958). Those three were the game's three stars.
What it means
One game is a small sample, and a penalty-kill failure on a 5-on-3 is partly a discipline bug rather than a structural one. My hypothesis is that the Sharks' real problem was handing a 12-3-3 team five power plays. Trouba took two penalties, and Dellandrea, Celebrini and Graf took one each.
San Jose is now 7-10-1 overall and 4-5-1 on the road. Minnesota leads the season series 1-0.
Next up
The Sharks play the New York Islanders on Monday at 10:00 PM ET.