The San Jose Sharks needed three months – or 42 games – to earn their 10th victory of the season last year.
Less than eight weeks into the season, the Sharks reached that number on Tuesday with arguably their most impressive win of the year so far.
William Eklund scored a power play goal 39 seconds into overtime as the Sharks continued their recent streak of strong play with a 2-1 road victory over the Capitals, who entered the game as as the most successful team in the NHL.
With Capitals forward Tom Wilson serving a double minor for Macklin Celebrini and the Sharks enjoying a 4-on-3 advantage, Eklund took a pass from Mikael Granlund and fired a single shot past Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson for his fifth. goal of the season.
“We were just trying to stay calm out there. “We didn’t want to get too excited about going to 4-on-3 overtime,” Eklund said on NBC Sports California after the game, “so we just tried to be calm, and let’s go. “
Celebrini had the secondary assist on Eklund’s goal to extend his point streak to five games, as the Sharks (10-13-5) improved to 4-1-0 since a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabers on November 23.
Tyler Toffoli also scored and Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 27 saves as the Sharks won their second straight road game to begin a six-game road trip that continues Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Sharks were 9-17-3 last season on December 12, 2023, before going on a 12-game losing streak that didn’t end until January 11. That’s when they beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 to finally get their 10th victory. They were 10-29-3 at that point.
This season is proving to be very different.
“I think we find that when we play connected, we’re a really good hockey team and we can do some things to put teams on their heels,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We can make plays, create offense, change the momentum of games and join teams.”
The Sharks led 1-0 after the first period.
After a Sharks line change, Toffoli took control of the puck in the neutral zone, carried it into the Capitals zone and beat Thompson with a wrist shot from the high blocker side for his 10th goal of the game. season.
The goal ended a seven-game goal drought for Toffoli, whose last goal came in a Nov. 18 game against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Sharks were able to take the lead after a strong first period from Blackwood, who made 16 saves in the first 20 minutes.
The Capitals tied the game at 13:02 of the second period. After Nic Dowd won a faceoff in the Sharks zone, he broke away and found a quiet spot in the slot zone. The Sharks lost sight of Dowd, who slotted a one-timer past Blackwood for his seventh goal of the season.
Blackwood was coming off a solid 36-save performance Saturday when the Sharks beat the Kraken 4-2 to earn their third win in four games. In his last 11 games before Tuesday, dating back to Oct. 28, Blackwood was 5-5-1 with a .907 save percentage.
The Capitals entered Tuesday as the NHL’s highest-scoring team, averaging 4.21 goals per game. They had also scored a league-leading 69 goals in 5-on-5 play this season.
The Sharks scored 22 goals in their last four games before facing the Capitals and were averaging 2.89 goals per game, which is 19th in the NHL.
SPECIAL GAME: Tuesday’s game was particularly meaningful for Warsofsky, who was coaching against Washington head coach Spencer Carbery for the first time as an NHL head coach. Warsofsky’s first coaching job in professional hockey came in 2013, when he worked on Carbery’s staff with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL. The two men coached together for three years.
LIST CHANGE: The Sharks made a lineup change for Tuesday’s game as veteran forward Carl Grundstrom replaced rookie Ethan Cardwell, who was healthy. Grundstrom went five games without scoring a point before being scratched healthy for both games of the Sharks’ home-and-home series against the Kraken last week.
Cardwell, who was recalled from Barracuda last week after Barclay Goodrow was placed on injured reserve, played in both games against the Kraken and scored his first NHL goal in the Sharks’ 8-5 victory Friday at the SAP Center.
Grundstrom skated on the Sharks’ fourth line with Nico Sturm and Ty Dellandrea.
VLASIC IS CLOSE TO RETURN: Warsofsky reiterated Tuesday that Sharks defenseman Marc-Édouard Vlasic is close to returning and is on track to be available to play again by the end of the team’s trip next week. Vlasic, who has missed all of training camp and every game so far this season with an upper-body injury, has skated regularly with the Sharks over the past few days.
Vlasic is in his 19th NHL season and has played in 1,296 career NHL games, all with the Sharks.
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