SAN JOSE \u2013 Macklin Celebrini was called for cross-checking Vancouver Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek into the boards with less than two minutes left in the third period on Friday, with the San Jose Sharks clinging to a one-goal lead.<\/p>\n
Incensed at what he thought was a borderline call, at best, at such a crucial stage of the game, Celebrini was then assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for smashing his stick against the glass inside the penalty box. The calls not only ended a Sharks power play but put the team on the penalty kill for over 40 seconds near the end of regulation time.<\/p>\n
None of it mattered, as the Sharks calmly killed the penalties on Celebrini \u2014 and several others \u2014 in a 3-2 win over the Canucks before an announced sellout crowd of 17,435 at SAP Center.<\/p>\n
The Sharks, aided by 11 saves from goalie Yaroslav Askarov, went 9-for-9 on the penalty kill, as they won for the ninth time in 14 games this month.<\/p>\n
Celebrini had two assists, Will Smith and William Eklund each had power-play goals, and Adam Gaudette scored the game-winner in the second period.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecial teams were really the difference in the game,\u201d Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cThe power play came through, and the penalty kill was outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Askarov was again stellar as he finished with 32 saves as the Sharks responded after a 6-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. Askarov has allowed two goals or fewer in eight of his past 10 starts.<\/p>\n
Backed by the goaltending of Askarov and Alex Nedeljovic, the Sharks\u2019 penalty kill is now a league-leading 94.2% this month, going into Saturday\u2019s road game against the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good response,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cWe played better. Competed a little bit harder, did some things that we\u2019ve talked about. Keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canucks, led by 2023-24 Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes, entered Friday\u2019s game with the eighth-ranked power play in the NHL at 23.8%.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoalies always have to be your best penalty killers and they\u2019ve been shutting it down back there for a good stretch now,\u201d said winger Collin Graf, who was on the ice for almost eight minutes Friday while the Sharks were shorthanded.<\/p>\n
There was a total of 38 penalty minutes handed out on Friday, including six with 1.9 seconds left in regulation after a scrum in the corner to the left of the Sharks\u2019 net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just trying to limit the stuff to the outside. Obviously, you\u2019ve got to give something up, especially when the other team\u2019s best offensive players are on the ice,\u201d Graf said. \u201cBut if we can limit shots to 25-30 feet and further out, then we\u2019ve got a better chance that the goalie is to save them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just over a minute after Eklund\u2019s power play goal from a sharp angle at the 14:03 mark of the second period tied the game 2-2, Gaudette jammed at a loose puck that was beside the post and next to the left pad of Canucks goalie Nikita Tolopilo.<\/p>\n
It was not ruled a goal on the ice. Still, after the NHL\u2019s Situation Room in Toronto initiated a video review, it was determined that Gaudette\u2019s shot completely crossed the Canucks\u2019 goal line at the 15:17 mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little confused there,\u201d Gaudette said. \u201cI told the coaches, \u2018You guys better challenge that.\u2019 But it was tough to see. And thankfully, Toronto called in and said it looked like it was across the line. You could see it in the netting of the goalie\u2019s glove there. I was just praying that they called that a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sharks, who entered Friday two points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference, are now 9-4-1 this month.<\/p>\n
Now the Sharks face the Golden Knights in a rematch of their Oct. 9 season-opener in San Jose.<\/p>\n
In that game, a pair of puck-handling blunders by Nedeljkovic led to a 4-3 Golden Knights win in overtime. An seemingly innocuous dump-in by Jack Eichel took an odd bounce and skidded past Nedeljkovic to tie it at 3-3 with 1:34 to play in the third period.<\/p>\n
Then in overtime, Nedeljkovic came far out of his net to play a loose puck, only to have it deflect right to Reilly Smith, who scored the winner on an empty-net.<\/p>\n
Nedeljkovic is expected to start Saturday\u2019s game at T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t forgotten the first game,\u201d Graf said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
LINEUP CHANGES<\/p>\n
Warsofsky made some changes to his defense pairs for Friday\u2019s game, inserting John Klingberg and Vincent Iorio into the lineup and scratching Shakir Mukhamadullin and Vincent Desharnais.<\/p>\n
Klingberg was paired with Mario Ferraro, and Iorio was with rookie Sam Dickinson.<\/p>\n
Warsofsky wants to keep his defenseman, eight of them, at least, as fresh as he can. Iorio, who just completed a two-week conditioning loan with the Barracuda, was a healthy scratch for Wednesday\u2019s loss, and was playing his first NHL game since Oct. 26 when the Sharks beat the Minnesota Wild 6-5 in overtime.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s game also marked Nick Leddy\u2019s fifth straight healthy scratch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Macklin Celebrini was called for cross-checking Vancouver Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek into the boards with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[2616,2617,5,2614,1180,4,5192,519,168,5306,5305,2618,1780,2615,2619,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-328919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-pm-report","15":"tag-san-jose","16":"tag-san-jose-sharks","17":"tag-sanjose","18":"tag-sanjosesharks","19":"tag-santa-clara-county","20":"tag-sharks","21":"tag-sharks-alert","22":"tag-south-bay","23":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115632844636363194","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}