The San Jose Sharks couldn’t pick up a win in the first game of their series against the Vegas Golden Knights last night, falling 5-4 in overtime despite an impressive comeback.
Martin Jones had a rough night. He can’t really be faulted for the first two goals, given that they were both cross-crease passes from in close. The third goal on Jones, however, was absolutely terrible. Max Pacioretty wristed a shot from the point through some traffic that beat Jones clean through the five-hole. After three goals on eight shots, Jones was pulled and the Sharks found themselves down 3-0.
Brent Burns got the Sharks on the board, after his point shot went in but play continued for a while, before it was eventually called a goal. Then Erik Karlsson made a great pass to Matt Nieto down the ice, who continued towards the net and beat Oscar Dansk with a well-placed shot, to bring the Sharks within a goal.
In the third period, Alex Tuch would extend the lead again for Vegas, before Logan Couture scored on a great wrist shot and in the dying minutes, Dansk bobbled the puck and Kevin Labanc capitalized. The game went to overtime, where Alex Pietrangelo found Max Pacioretty for the winner.
Some notes: It really is a disaster trying to read jersey numbers on those reverse retro jerseys. That said, the ’Patrick Marleau ties the game’ call on Kevin Labanc’s goal was pretty hilarious.
Timo Meier has been looking quite a bit better and is skating with the puck more, after being pretty invisible to start the season. I also thought Erik Karlsson had a strong game and is actually looking better than he did at the start of the year. Devan Dubnyk had to make some good saves to keep the game within reach and played fairly well in relief of Jones.
Regardless, the Sharks picked up just a single point and will look to rebound and even the series against the Golden Knights tonight.
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Do you think Erik Karlsson has performed better since returning to the lineup?
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