On Saturday the San Jose Sharks ended a two-game losing skid with a 3-2 OT win against the St. Louis Blues. The Sharks maintain a perfect 3-0 record against the Blues this season, securing victories with scores of 5-1 and 4-0.
It was a night of firsts for the Sharks. William Eklund earned his first hat-trick, Devin Cooley got his first NHL win, and Collin Graf made his NHL debut. Sharks franchise history also had a first for two goalies recording their first NHL win in the same season.
Game recap – First period
In the first twenty, the Sharks remained scoreless but garnered penalties, dominated faceoffs, and witnessed Calen Addison’s game ejection.
Addison’s four penalties for an initial cross checking call racked him up to 24 penalty infraction minutes.
St. Louis led in shots on goal 14-5 and hits 8-2, but were zero for three on the power play.
Second period lead
In the second frame, Sharks and Blues were 50-50 on the faceoff wins.
At 13:47 in the period, St. Louis’ Justin Faulk and Sharks’ alternate captain Luke Kunin received fighting penalties. Faulk did not return after the second period and accumulated a total of 17 penalty minutes.
Seconds after going on the power play, Eklund’s slap shot broke the ice for the Sharks. Henry Thrun and alternate captain Mikael Granlund picked up assists. Granlund is on a seven-game point streak with six assists and two goals.
25 seconds later, Sharks went on the power play again with an interference call on St. Louis’ Nathan Walker against Jack Studnicka.
Following shots on Blues’ goalie Joel Hofer, Sharks’ Fabian Zetterlund and Thomas Bordeleau assisted Eklund’s second goal of the game. Though not a rookie by NHL standards, this was the 21-year-old’s first multi-goal game.
Team Teal led in shots 14-8 but trailed the Blues overall, 22-19 at the end of the second period.
Third period
Just nine seconds into the period, Sharks’ Klim Kostin and Blues’ Colton Parayko dropped the gloves. Kostin ranked fifth in shifts for the Sharks, logging 18:41 minutes on the ice along with five penalty minutes.
“We need more people doing that,” head coach David Quinn said, “I’m not saying fighting. I mean playing with an edge and being all in. To me, it can’t always be him. It’s gotta be other people.”
Minutes later, Studnicka was called for hooking, putting Sharks on the penalty kill.
St. Louis’ Jordan Kyrou scored on the power play with a wrister assisted by Pavel Buchnevich and Robert Thomas.
At 17:31, Blues’ captain Brayden Schenn tied the game with a slap shot, assisted by Thomas and Scott Perunovich.
Sharks went into bonus hockey trailing shots on goal 33-25.
Overtime
46 seconds into bonus hockey, Sharks went on the penalty kill when Granlund was called for hooking against Buchnevich.
Team Teal successfully killed the penalty, and moments later, Kunin assisted Eklund for his first career hat-trick goal.
“We stick together, even when we face adversity and I feel like today we stepped up big time,” Eklund said.
“PK was great all night,” Cooley said after the win, “And Ekky with the hat-trick. Wow, that guy’s special. It was awesome that we were able to get the job done.”
Stats and notes
Eklund earned first star of the game for his hat trick, followed by goaltender Devin Cooley and Kunin.
Cooley is the first California-born goalie to play for any of the California-based NHL teams. The 26-year-old made 34 saves with a .944 save percentage in front of his crowd. He is the first Santa Clara County-born player to appear in an NHL game with San Jose.
After 60 minutes and overtime, Sharks led the stats in penalty minutes 42-30, draw percentage 56-44, and blocks 8-7.
Mario Ferraro led (26:14), followed by Granlund (25:33) and Thrun (25:01), in ice time among the Sharks.
Defenseman Jan Rutta played the most shifts, with 28. He logged 22:30 minutes of ice time and contributed one hit and one takeaway with a minus-one rating.
Graf in his NHL debut played a portion of the game on the second line alongside Kunin and Eklund.
Zetterlund not only assisted but also led the Sharks in shots on goal, registering a total of five attempts.
Defenseman Jacob MacDonald, who last played in the 6-3 loss to Dallas on Mar. 26, returned to the Sharks lineup. Ryan Carpenter, Givani Smith, Kevin Labanc, and Mike Hoffman were scratches.
The Sharks accrued six penalties in the first period, one in the second, two in the third, and one in overtime.
St. Louis has a .1 percent chance of making the playoffs, further dimming their hopes after the recent loss.
San Jose has five games left in the season to wrap up a challenging campaign, their record at 18-50-8. The Sharks face the Calgary Flames on Tuesday before traveling for a game against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
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Featured image courtesy of San Jose Sharks on X.com
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- Source: https://thegamehaus.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks-clinch-victory-with-eklunds-ot-hat-trick/2024/04/07/
