The Vancouver Canucks welcomed the San Jose Sharks to Rogers Arena on Saturday in both teams’ first game back after the holiday break. Before the break, the Canucks finished a five-game road trip in Philadelphia, falling 5-2 to the Flyers, while the Sharks lost 7-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights. Something had to give in this one, and it ended up being the Sharks coming away with the 6-3 win, breaking a ten-game losing streak in Vancouver.
Linus Karlsson, Marco Rossi, and Drew O’Connor scored for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko made 31 saves.
Ryan Reaves, John Klingberg, William Eklund, Igor Chernyshov, Macklin Celebrini, and Collin Graf scored for the Sharks. Yaroslav Askarov made 24 saves.
Game Recap
The Sharks opened the scoring early in the first period with Reaves’ third of the season. After getting a piece of Vincent Iorio’s shot from the point, Demko couldn’t find the puck behind him, and before he could cover it with his blocker, Reaves pushed it in for the 1-0 lead. Klingberg stretched the lead to two a little over a minute later, as his seeing-eye wrist shot found its way past Demko through traffic.
The Canucks got on the board on the power play halfway through the period with Karlsson’s eighth of the season. Conor Garland found him with a pinpoint pass at the side of the net, where he one-timed it past Askarov to pull his team within one going into the intermission.
The Sharks restored their two-goal lead at 12:38 of the second period on Eklund’s ninth. He got a piece of the puck before Rossi deflected up and over his own goaltender, putting the Sharks up 3-1 heading into the third.
The third period had a lot of offence from both sides, as the Sharks and Canucks combined for five goals. The Canucks pulled within one twice, 3-2 with Rossi’s first as a Canuck, and 4-3 with O’Connor’s shorthanded goal, but the Sharks increased their lead back to two twice as well. It began with Chernyshov’s first NHL goal to pull ahead 4-2 at 4:47, and then Celebrini at 16:20 to go up 5-3 with a snipe past Demko for his 20th. Graf finished the scoring 35 seconds later to cap the Sharks’ 6-3 victory, their first at Rogers Arena in 10 tries. It was also Demko’s first-ever loss against the Sharks, as he entered the game a perfect 13-0 in his career.
The Sharks outshot the Canucks 37-27 and went 1-for-5 on the power play. The Canucks went 1-for-4 on the man advantage.
What’s Next
The Canucks will make a quick trip down the highway to Seattle to face the Kraken on Monday before coming home for a three-game homestand, which starts on Tuesday. The Sharks, meanwhile, will travel to Anaheim for the last game of their three-game road trip, also on Monday.
