The Sharks keep finding the same painful ending in the third period, and Saturday night in Detroit made it sting a little more.
San Jose had a two-goal lead early in the final frame at Little Caesars Arena, but it slipped away, and the Sharks never recovered in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Red Wings. After failing to cash in on a power play in overtime, the Sharks came up empty in the shootout as Will Smith, Macklin Celebrini and Ivar Stenberg were all stopped by John Gibson. Lucas Raymond then beat Alex Nedeljkovic in the third round to finish it.
For a team that has already watched multiple multi-goal leads disappear this season, this was the one that cost San Jose a point. The Sharks fell to 4-3-1 and missed a chance at their first regulation win of the season, while also seeing their bid for a third straight road victory get shut down.
The lead was gone in a hurry after San Jose went up 3-1. Emmitt Finnie broke in behind the defense and scored at the 5:00 mark of the third period, and Alex DeBrincat tied it with 1:33 left in regulation after the Red Wings worked the puck toward the slot and DeBrincat finished a loose puck from beside the net. Nedeljkovic made eight saves in the third period and finished with 24 overall.
The Sharks are now 1-0-1 on their six-game road trip, which continues Monday night in Toronto.
Before the collapse, Celebrini had done plenty of the damage for San Jose. He finished with a goal and two assists, while Dmitry Orlov and Stenberg each scored on the power play.
Stenberg’s tally, the second of his NHL career, gave the Sharks that 3-1 cushion 2:48 into the third period. Alexander Wennberg handled the puck after a feed from Celebrini near the side of the net and slipped it to Stenberg in the slot.
Celebrini had already put San Jose ahead in the second period after Michael Kesselring read a lazy clearing attempt by Detroit defenseman William Wallinder just inside the Red Wings blue line. Kesselring quickly moved the puck to Will Smith, then found Celebrini trailing the play for a shot that went top corner past Gibson at 4:55. That made it 2-1 Sharks.
San Jose had opened the scoring drought with a late first-period power-play goal from Orlov. With Ben Chiarot in the box for holding Celebrini’s stick, Orlov took a pass from Stenberg and blasted a shot from just inside the blue line through Gibson to tie the game 1-1. The Sharks also controlled the first period on the shot clock, holding a 14-5 edge after 20 minutes.
Saturday’s game also marked Nedeljkovic’s return to the crease after Ryan Warsofsky wanted to get him back in right away following his 32-save outing against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. The Parma, Ohio native was playing in front of friends and family, and he entered the night with a 2-0-0 record and a .933 save percentage after stopping 24 of 26 shots in San Jose’s 3-2 overtime win over the St.
Louis Blues on Oct. 8.
Warsofsky said of Nedeljkovic: “He was outstanding the (Thursday) night, and in both games he’s played this year, he’s given us a chance to win the hockey game,” Warsofsky said of Nedeljkovic. “He’s made timely saves. He’s made the saves he’s needed to make, but the timely ones you need, and he did that in Nashville.”
The Sharks also got Darnell Nurse back after he missed Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury. He skated on the top pair with Kesselring after being a game-time decision. Nurse had been injured Tuesday in San Jose during a fight with Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov.
With Nurse returning, rookie Luca Cagnoni came out of the lineup for the first time this season. Cagnoni, who has served as the quarterback on the top power play unit for most of the season, has one goal and one assist in seven games and has averaged 18:37 of ice time per game.
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