The Sharks finally got a result that can travel.
San Jose opened a six-game road trip Thursday night in Nashville and walked out with a 3-2 shootout win over the Predators, surviving a late collapse before Macklin Celebrini and Alex Nedeljkovic delivered in the decisive round. Celebrini beat Juuse Saros, then Nedeljkovic turned aside Ross Colton to finish off a tense night at Bridgestone Arena.
It was the kind of game that can slip away fast. The Sharks carried a 2-0 lead into the third period, watched Steven Stamkos tie it with less than a second left in regulation, and then steadied themselves in overtime. Nedeljkovic made five saves in the extra session, and San Jose held on in the shootout to improve to 4-3-0.
Mason Marchment and Will Smith scored for the Sharks in regulation, while Nedeljkovic stopped 32 shots overall. Saros finished with 30 saves for Nashville, which fell to 2-2-3.
San Jose struck first when Marchment scored at 5:30 of the opening period off a Tyler Toffoli assist. Smith extended the lead at 4:28 of the third, finishing a play set up by Michael Kesselring.
The Predators clawed back from there. Ryan O’Reilly made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 9:05 of the third, and Stamkos forced overtime with his last-second equalizer. But the Sharks still found a way to finish the job.
Nedeljkovic was sharp from the start. In just his second start of the season, he had 17 saves through two periods, including a standout stop on Filip Forsberg during a Sharks penalty kill in the first.
He also started last Thursday’s 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues, when he made 24 saves.
That performance came with a familiar note for San Jose: all three of the team’s other wins this season have come in overtime.
Yaroslav Askarov had started five of the Sharks’ first six games, but after allowing five goals on 25 shots in Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins, he gave way to Nedeljkovic for Thursday’s game. Askarov is 2-3-0 with an .848 save percentage in his five starts.
The Sharks were also without Darnell Nurse, who remained sidelined with an upper body injury suffered in a fight with Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov on Tuesday. Nurse, third on the team in average ice time at 20:35, left that game with 13:20 remaining in regulation. He took rushes with Michael Kesselring during the morning skate in Nashville and was considered a game-time decision, but did not take pregame warmups.
His absence shifted the defensive pairings. Dmitry Orlov slid into Nurse’s spot with Kesselring, and Luca Cagnoni stayed in the lineup alongside Nolan Allan, who had been scratched for four straight games before Thursday.
The Sharks also made a roster move, reassigning forwards Alex Barre-Boulet and Cam Lund to the Barracuda. Lund, who started the season on the non-roster list, was hurt at the team’s Rookie Faceoff event at Tech CU Arena in September. Barre-Boulet had been on injured reserve, did not appear in a preseason game, and cleared waivers Thursday after being placed on them Wednesday.
The Barracuda, now 1-4-0-0, are scheduled to play the Calgary Wranglers at home today.
There is also a long-term absence to track on the Sharks’ side of the franchise ledger. Ottawa coach Travis Green said Thursday that William Eklund will miss at least two more months after surgery this week to repair a torn ankle tendon. Eklund left the Senators’ Oct. 8 game against Philadelphia in the first period after being hit into the boards by Flyers defenseman Simon Benoit and falling to the ice in pain.
The Sharks will not see Eklund in either of their two matchups with Ottawa this month. San Jose visits the Senators on Oct. 22 and hosts them again at SAP Center on Oct. 31.
Eklund had 163 points in 252 games with the Sharks before Ottawa acquired him in June, along with winger Kasper Halttunen and center Brandon Svoboda, in exchange for the No. 9 pick in this year’s draft. The Sharks used that selection on North Dakota defenseman Keaton Verhoeff, while their No. 2 pick went to winger Ivar Stenberg. Stenberg, 19, entered Thursday with one goal and three assists in six games.
Halttunen is in the AHL with Belleville, and Svoboda is in his third season at Boston University. Eklund, drafted seventh overall by the Sharks in 2021, spent most of 2021-22 in Sweden and most of 2022-23 with the Barracuda.
In Other News...
Sharks Suddenly Have A Goalie Decision They Cant Ignore
Alex Nedeljkovic has given the Sharks a steady lift in recent wins, including the 3-2 overtime victory against the Nashville Predators, and his early work has helped San Jose get out to a 4-3-0 start. With a .933 save percentage, he has looked like the more reliable option in net at a time when the team is still trying to settle into a rhythm.
Yaroslav Askarov, meanwhile, has not found the same consistency, posting an .848 save percentage in five starts and leaving the Sharks with a real decision to make about how they split the crease moving forward. The balance between rewarding Nedeljkovics form and giving Askarov enough runway to rebound is suddenly one of the more important questions hanging over the teams next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Sam Dickinson Is Giving The Sharks A Blue Line Decision To Make
Sam Dickinsons latest turn in the lineup gave the Sharks another reason to think hard about their blue line. In the 3-2 shootout win over Nashville, the young defenseman handled a heavier workload and looked more settled doing it, continuing the kind of steady rise that has made his spot in the conversation feel more real after he was scratched earlier in the season. Coach Ryan Warsofsky has noticed the difference, praising Dickinsons improved play and consistency as the Sharks sort through how they want to shape their defense.
Darnell Nurses status only adds another layer to the decision. He was a full participant in practice, but the upper-body issue that has him listed as day-to-day still leaves his availability unresolved for the upcoming game against Detroit. For a team trying to build on a win and get the back end organized, the timing matters, because Dickinson has suddenly made it harder to treat those minutes as a temporary fill-in. [Read more 🡒]