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Late goal sinks Sharks in loss to Canucks, win streak ends at three games |
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The San Jose Sharks’ win streak ended at three games, losing 3-2 to the Vancouver Canucks at home last night.
San Jose had an early chance on a 3-on-1 where Carl Grundstrom was denied by Kevin Lankinen, before Mackenzie Blackwood made a big save on Pius Suter at the other end.
We saw a pretty uneventful opening frame from there, with only eight total shots in around the first 15 minutes of the period. The Sharks really didn’t get much going, managing only three shots in the frame, but they also didn’t give up a ton of quality chances.
Only a few minutes into the second period though, Nico Sturm got the puck to Luke Kunin in the slot then went to the net, burying the rebound to open the scoring for San Jose.
The Canucks started to build momentum from there though and had a lot of good chances through the first half of the period. William Eklund did have a breakaway later in the frame, but shortly after he couldn’t convert, Jake Walman had a bad turnover up the middle in the Sharks' end, and Pius Suter managed to capitalize, evening the game through two periods.
After two full periods at even strength, the teams traded power play chances throughout most of the third period, but neither could capitalize. However, with about four minutes left, the Canucks came in on a rush and Jake DeBrusk took a pass from Quinn Hughes and beat Blackwood with a nice shot, giving Vancouver a late lead.
However, with San Jose’s net empty and only a little more than a minute to go, Mikael Granlund ripped a shot through Lankinen, tying the game.
But while it looked like the teams would be set for overtime, the Canucks came right back the other way, and with only 25 seconds to go, Conor Garland fed a pass out front to Suter, who beat Blackwood for his second goal of the game, putting the Canucks back in front for a 3-2 win.
Takeaways
It’s a tough result for the Sharks, after a decent game. They were outplayed at times, but hung around against a pretty good team in the Canucks, and some lapses let an opportunity to pick up points slip away. Jake Walman, who’s been so good for the Sharks this year, was at least partially responsible for both of the Pius Suter goals.
At the same time, even if it’s frustrating to not pick up points, the Sharks continue to look much better over their last stretch of games. They’ve been more competitive, and while they were on their heels at times against Vancouver, even last night’s game was played a lot more evenly than their games early in the season. It’s a sign of progress, at least.
Timothy Liljegren also suited up for his first game with the Sharks. He only got a little shy of 17 minutes, but he had the second-best corsi for percentage on the team (according to NaturalStatTrick.com), and got an opportunity on the team’s power play.
The loss ends San Jose’s win streak, but they’ve had some momentum lately, and still have two games remaining on their homestand to get back on track.
San Jose will be back in action on Tuesday, when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets.
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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