The Detroit Red Wings traveled to San Jose to take on the Sharks in a game where both teams were looking to end multi-game losing streaks (the Red Wings were looking to end a two-game skid, and the Sharks were looking to snap their three-game skid). A back-and-forth game ended up seeing the Sharks pull off a 5-4 overtime win. With the loss, the Red Wings drop to 7-9-2, while the Sharks move to 6-10-4 with the win.
Game Recap
The first 20 minutes saw the Sharks control the offensive play for the first half, coming out with more energy than the Red Wings did, but Red Wings netminder Cam Talbot was up to the challenge and was strong in between the pipes for his team early on. The Red Wings finally got themselves in a rhythm offensively, thanks to their strong forecheck, which greatly pressured the Sharks’ defense. This helped lead to Dylan Larkin’s team-leading 11th goal of the season after the forecheck forced a turnover on a failed clearing attempt by former Red Wing Jake Walman. Simon Edvinsson took advantage of the turnover to find Larkin in the slot wide-open for a strong backhand shot to beat Sharks netminder Mackenzie Blackwood.
It did not take long for the Sharks to respond, though, with William Eklund cashing in on the power play thanks to driving the net for a rebound goal. The Red Wings would take the lead before the end of the period with their own power play goal off the stick of Marco Kasper, cashing in on his own rebound to give his team the lead after 20 minutes of play, 2-1.
The Red Wings came out with more energy in the second period, getting early chances on Blackwood, but he stood tall to keep his team’s deficit to one until Eklund would once again get on the board, getting some puck luck off what seemed to be a harmless shot on Talbot. But the shot bounced off the netminder’s glove and into the net to tie the game at two. Thanks to a strong forecheck once again, the puck bounced in the Red Wings’ favor. This time, Michael Rasmussen made a play on the puck in the corner that ended up bouncing off Henry Thrun in front and squeaking through Blackwood’s five-hole to give the Red Wings the lead once again.
They held the lead until the final minute of the period when Tyler Toffoli scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season off a strong play by Alex Wennberg to protect the puck board side and find Toffoli wide-open (thanks to a defensive lapse by the Red Wings)—the second period ended in a 3-3 deadlock, with the Sharks maintaining an advantage in the shot department, 23-16.
A third period dominated by the Sharks, feeding off the speed of youngsters like Macklin Celebrini, led to the Sharks taking a 4-3 lead when Luke Kunin benefited off a rush where he beat JT Compher to the slot and got a great pass from Carl Grundstrom to beat Talbot. They held the 4-3 lead until the Red Wings power play once again recorded a goal. Alex DeBrincat beat Blackwood with a backhand shot after his initial pass attempt was blocked by Mario Ferraro.
The game would go to overtime, where Celebrini tallied his first career game-winning goal, taking advantage of DeBrincat being back as a defenseman and beating Talbot to give the Sharks the 5-4 win. In the win, Blackwood recorded 20 saves on 24 shots, while Talbot stopped 34 of 39 shots he faced.
The Red Wings return to Detroit to take on the New York Islanders on Nov. 21. The Sharks will head to Dallas on Nov. 20 to take on the Stars.
