On Tuesday night the San Jose Sharks beat Utah 3–2 in overtime. Macklin Celebrini scored all three goals, including the OT winner.
In the first, San Jose struck early. Celebrini scored at 1:47 with help from Will Smith and Philipp Kurashev. He added another at 5:58 off Collin Graf’s assist. After the first, Team Teal led 2–0.
In the second, no goals were scored by either team. The Sharks killed a penalty, and Utah got two power plays that they failed to capitalize on.
For the penalty kill unit, head coach Ryan Warsofsky mainly had defensemen Mario Ferraro and Vincent Desharnais with their forwards. Post game, Desharnais told the press, “The goaltending has been unbelievable on the PK.”
Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov faced 26 shots, stopped 24, and posted a .923 save percentage in 62 minutes of play.
In the third, Utah rallied with JJ Peterka’s goal at 9:25. San Jose’s lead vanished late in the third, as is a similar occurrence. Peterka’s game-tying goal was assisted by Nate Schmidt.
Post game, Celebrini told the press, “It wasn’t good to give up those two goals. Kind of giving up the breakaway and then the other one. But I think it’s definitely the steps we want to take.”
In overtime, the Mammoth went on the PK after being called for too many men. Sharks capitalized and Celebrini buried the winning goal with a wrist shot assisted by Eklund and Smith.
Celebrini’s game-winner earned him his third career hat trick, and put him in NHL history once again. The 19-year-old now becomes one of six players in NHL history with three or more hat tricks as a teenager. He also became the fourth teen to reach 30 points in 20 games or less. This feat follows the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, and Mario Lemieux.
This was Eklund’s fourth game back after suffering a lower-body injury that caused him to miss all of October’s matchups. Eklund is on a two-game point streak with his assistive contributions.
Utah outshot San Jose 26 to 22. San Jose delivered 22 hits while Utah recorded 13. The Sharks took four penalty minutes, and Utah had an opportunistic ten. Team Teal won 55 percent of faceoffs compared to Utah’s 45 percent.
Michael Misa remains out with a lower-body injury and will miss more than two weeks. Injured in the first period of their Nov. 13 matchup against Calgary, Jeff Skinner is sidelined for at least two weeks.
Forward Ryan Reaves is shaping team culture. Following Tuesday’s win, he introduced a shark-tooth necklace as the new player-of-the-game award. The new tradition is that the winner gives a shirtless interview wearing the necklace. While fans may have been slow to embrace him after his Vegas years, his leadership may be winning them over.
San Jose improves to 9–8–3. Defensive structure and staying in it until the very end remain key trends for Team Teal. The Sharks finish out their four-game homestand with matchups against the Ottawa Senators and the Boston Bruins.
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Featured image courtesy of San Jose Sharks on NHL.com
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