Macklin Celebrini and Mason Marchment gave the Sharks exactly the jolt SAP Center needed on Wednesday, but the comeback stopped short in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
A capacity crowd of 17,435 watched San Jose erase a two-goal deficit in the third period and push the game to overtime. From there, the Sharks couldn’t solve Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov, and Ben Kindel delivered the lone shootout goal to finish it.
Celebrini had the first punch, scoring his eighth goal of the season with 8:28 left in regulation to pull San Jose within one. He then set up Marchment’s goal with 4:11 remaining, turning a one-goal hole into a tie game and sending the building into a frenzy.
But the shootout belonged to Pittsburgh. Celebrini, Will Smith and Ivar Stenberg all came up empty against Murashov, who finished with 34 saves.
Yaroslav Askarov was sharp again for San Jose, stopping 33 shots, but the Sharks couldn’t get the extra point.
The game had already turned on a controversial second-period sequence. Down by one, the Sharks thought they had tied it when Stenberg appeared to score at the 10:10 mark.
Murashov got a toe on Colebrini’s close-range attempt, and the puck landed on top of the net. Stenberg then used his stick to knock it off the top of the net toward himself and nearly forced it across the line while being pushed from behind by Kris Letang.
Referee Kyle Rehman waved it off immediately, and after a long video review, the NHL’s Situation Room confirmed the call. The league cited Rule 78.5 (i), which says apparent goals are disallowed when the puck is directed, batted or thrown into the net by an attacking player other than with a stick, and if it’s done deliberately, it is no goal.
Pittsburgh opened the scoring late in the first period when defenseman Samuel Girard struck at 8:57. The Penguins had just come off a tripping penalty to Jacob Trouba when Girard took a pass from Evgeni Malkin and ripped a shot past a screened Askarov.
San Jose actually outshot Pittsburgh 12-11 in the opening period, but still went to the first intermission trailing.
The Sharks also came into the night trying to clean up their penalty kill. They had just killed off the Trouba minor, but overall they had only killed 10 of their previous 19 minor penalties over the last four games.
Askarov entered Wednesday with a .911 save percentage over his last eight starts, a stretch in which he ranked first in the NHL in saves with 225 and second in time on ice at 481:05.
After a 3-2 shootout win over the New York Islanders on Monday, San Jose was trying to stack back-to-back wins for the first time since beating the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators on Oct. 20 and 22. Instead, the Sharks fell to 2-7-0 since then and slipped out of a playoff position.
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