The Canucks held a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes, then watched it disappear in a hurry as the Sharks scored three straight in the third period and walked away with a 3-2 win.
Vancouver opened the game with some early pressure issues, and Leevi Meriläinen had to be sharp right away. Things got even messier when Brock Boeser left after taking a shot off his foot, forcing Arshdeep Bains onto the first line. That stretch did not start cleanly for Bains: he turned the puck over in the Sharks’ zone, then took a holding penalty on Collin Graf to give San Jose the game’s first power play.
The Sharks’ man advantage featured the expected Macklin Celebrini show, but Meriläinen handled it, and Vancouver killed off the chance. Almost immediately after Bains came out of the box, Michael Misa was called for cross-checking, sending the Canucks to their first power play. They didn’t convert there either, but they did cash in with a far more inventive sequence.
Elias Pettersson made the play happen from start to finish. He chased down the puck as San Jose tried to exit its zone, stripped it away, battled through two Sharks along the boards, and then got the puck toward the net.
Yaroslav Askarov kicked the shot attempt right to Drew O’Connor, who finished the rebound for the opening goal. Jamie Oleksiak also deserves a piece of it for keeping the play alive before Pettersson’s work took over.
Later in the period, Vancouver got another power-play look, and the biggest moment from it was Meriläinen stopping Kiefer Sherwood on a shorthanded breakaway. That save kept the Canucks ahead after 20 minutes.
The second period stayed tight, but Vancouver found a way to add to the lead. Jake DeBrusk nearly made it 2-0 when Zeev Buium sprung him and Elias Pettersson on a 2-on-1, but his shot rang off the crossbar. The Canucks then had to kill off another penalty when Buium was called for cross-checking, and Meriläinen again did the heavy lifting on the penalty kill.
With just over three minutes left in the period, Liam Öhgren took a tripping penalty in the neutral zone, putting the Sharks back on the power play. Once again, Meriläinen stood tall through a flurry of chances. Then Öhgren got redemption almost immediately after stepping out of the box, cutting into the middle and ripping a glove-side shot past Askarov to make it 2-0.
The middle frame mostly featured both teams grinding for space and making life difficult through the neutral zone. At five-on-five, Vancouver looked solid, and after 40 minutes the Canucks were up two and outshooting San Jose.
The third period turned fast.
Jonathan Lekkerimäki was whistled for interference on Macklin Celebrini about seven minutes in, and San Jose finally broke through on its fifth power play of the night. After Drew O’Connor and Elias Pettersson helped clear the zone, the Sharks worked their way back in, found Will Smith, and he beat Meriläinen with a wrister through traffic from Ivar Stenberg.
Smith struck again soon after. Celebrini delivered a slick touch pass to the net-front after an errant point shot, and Smith quickly fired home another one to tie it 2-2.
Then, 11 seconds later, the Sharks had the lead. Kiefer Sherwood carried the puck through the neutral zone and into Vancouver’s end, fed Mason Marchment, and Marchment’s shot off the rush beat Meriläinen under the glove.
Vancouver did get one more chance when Michael Kesselring cross-checked Jake DeBrusk, setting up a 6-on-4. Brock Boeser also stepped in when Kesselring tried to push Elias Pettersson after the whistle. But the Canucks couldn’t find the tying goal, and San Jose closed it out 3-2.
Will Smith’s two-goal third and Misa’s presence in the game were reminders of the kind of high-end talent a rebuild can collect. For Vancouver, Meriläinen was the story for most of the night, but the third period belonged to the Sharks.
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