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The San Jose Sharks battled back from a two-goal deficit for their second win in a row last night, defeating the Minnesota Wild 3-2 in a shootout.
The Wild struck first, with Frederick Gaudreau outwaiting James Reimer in front to open the scoring. The Sharks were outshot 9-6 in the frame, but did have some sporadic quality chances and near misses amongst those six shots.
We saw a pretty even second frame, with Minnesota outshooting San Jose 12-10. The Sharks did take a couple penalties but managed to kill them off, exiting the period still down a single goal.
However, the Sharks ended up going down by two early in the third period off a costly mistake from Erik Karlsson at the opposing line, falling down and giving up a shorthanded 2-on-0, which Connor Dewar capitalized on to extend the lead. San Jose continued pressing as the frame went on though and ended up outshooting Minnesota 18-6 in the period. With about six minutes to go, Steven Lorentz finally got the Sharks on the board, taking a few whacks at a rebound to score. Then only a couple minutes later, Nico Sturm came down the wing and managed to sneak a harmless-looking shot through Filip Gustavsson to tie the game, sending the contest to overtime.
There were some good chances exchanged in overtime, with Timo Meier ringing a shot off the post, but neither team could capitalize and the game continued to a shootout. Neither team’s first shooter could convert, but Kirill Kaprizov put Minnesota ahead with a backhander as the Wild’s second shooter. Then after both Logan Couture and Frederick Gaudreau missed, all the pressure was on Nick Bonino, but he was able to beat Gustavsson with a nice move to extend it. James Reimer was able to stop Joel Eriksson Ek after that and Alexander Barabanov snuck a shot through Gustavsson to win it for San Jose.
It was a strong game for the Sharks, highlighted by an important third period. They ended up outshooting Minnesota 37-30 overall, picking up their second straight win of their road trip.
The Sharks have actually shown quite a bit of improvement and following a terrible start, they continue to be pretty competitive now. Even when they haven't been winning recently, they've been close in most games and we'll see if they can build any momentum in a weak division.
One negative though was that Radim Simek took a high hit early in the first period and didn’t return to the game. He’s since been placed on injured reserve, which is a blow to San Jose’s defense group.
San Jose will wrap up their four-game road trip tomorrow against the Vegas Golden Knights.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM NOVEMBER
Erik Karlsson’s hat trick not enough as Sharks fall to Ducks in shootout
Sharks mount comeback against Panthers but still fall in a shootout
Sharks outplay Ducks but blow another lead for third straight shootout loss
Sharks split road back-to-back, beat Stars following loss to Blues 
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