{"id":471346,"date":"2026-02-25T15:33:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/471346\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:33:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:33:38","slug":"san-jose-sharks-lose-to-calgary-flames-fall-behind-in-nhl-playoff-race-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/471346\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks lose to Calgary Flames, fall behind in NHL playoff race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sharks<\/a> are continuing a five-game road trip<\/a> with a bad taste in their mouth after back-to-back losses to end a three-game Canadian road swing.<\/p>\n

After losing to Edmonton in overtime<\/a> on Thursday, San Jose took two early leads in Calgary on Saturday, but a late shorthanded goal by Joel Farabee gave the Flames a 3-2 lead and the win at the Scotiabank Saddledome.<\/p>\n

San Jose\u2019s road trip continues with games at Chicago and Colorado before the NHL takes an extended break for the Winter Olympics in Italy, which will feature NHL players for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n

Will Smith scored the game\u2019s opening goal on a power-play tap-in at the 3:11 mark of the first period, depositing a perfect pass across the slot from Alexander Wennberg for the backdoor score.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks\u2019 Will Smith (2) scores on Calgary Flames goalie Dustin Wolf during the first period of an NHL hockey games in Calgary, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Larry MacDougal\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good play on the wall by Wenny,\u201d Smith told reporters after the game. \u201cTried to open up for him, and then he made a great pass. Just tried to get it on net and it went in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary responded later in the period when Morgan Frost flung in a loose puck from the front of the net as the Sharks scrambled to defend down two men.<\/p>\n

San Jose got back on the board just after the expiration of a power play that carried across the first two periods, as William Eklund drove the net and poked a puck loose in the crease that found Adam Gaudette\u2019s stick on the right side of the net for a quick tap.<\/p>\n

Matvei Gridin answered for Calgary off a beautiful cross-ice pass from Morgan Frost, who winged the puck across the shot for a fluid one-time finish from Gridin. The 19-year-old winger beat Sharks goalie Alex Nedejkovic to his left side.<\/p>\n

Calgary took its first lead when Farabee swiped in a backhand shot while the Flames were shorthanded at the 6:53 mark of the third period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks\u2019 Alexander Wennberg (21) vies for control of the puck with Calgary Flames\u2019 Matvei Gridin during the first period of an NHL hockey games in Calgary, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Larry MacDougal\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n

Nedelkovic, who made 39 saves to keep the Sharks in the game, left the contest with 3:15 remaining after taking a hard shot to his lower body. He returned to the ice after taking some time during a break in the action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just needed to get off the ice,\u201d Nedelkovic said after the game. \u201cMy leg was starting to bug me a little bit, so I just needed a little breather. And thankfully, it was a TV timeout, so I was able to kind of get things under control. My leg just started to kind of twitch a little bit, so I wanted to make sure everything was all right. I didn\u2019t think it was (serious). Just wanted to \u2013 in the moment, it didn\u2019t feel all right. So I thought it was fine for the most part. I just needed a second.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Jose (27-22-4) has now squandered two quality opportunities for points in consecutive games. The Sharks led Edmonton 3-0 before a third-period collapse and finished with just one point after an overtime loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now with the loss to Calgary (22-26-6), the Sharks had no points against the second-worst team in the Pacific Division, which had lost 10 of 13 games and five in a row heading into Saturday\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

It was not a recipe for a happy head coach.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks\u2019 Macklin Celebrini (71) collides with Calgary Flames\u2019 Matvei Gridin during the first period of an NHL hockey games in Calgary, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Larry MacDougal\/The Canadian Press via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t get it going at all,\u201d Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t stop the puck. There were a lot of issues, but that was one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Jose slipped further back in its quest to reach the NHL playoffs for the first time since 2019, remaining one point behind Los Angeles, Seattle and Anaheim for the final Wild Card spot and the Pacific Division lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sharks have two more chances to pick up points before the NHL breaks for nearly a month to allow many of its players to pursue Olympic gold in Milan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough one to swallow, but we got two more games here,\u201d Nedelkovic said. \u201cWe\u2019re .500 through the first three games (of the road trip). It kind of stings, but we\u2019ll take it. And we got a big one against Chicago to flip the script a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sharks are continuing a five-game road trip with a bad taste in their mouth after back-to-back losses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[2617,27663,5,4,60,27664,168,2618,43,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-471346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-central-coast","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-nhl-playoffs","14":"tag-northern-california","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks","16":"tag-santa-clara-county","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-stanley-cup","19":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","20":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116132001589151592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471346","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=471346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}