SAN JOSE – In the future after the Sharks misplaced on the street in time beyond regulation to the last-place workforce within the Pacific Division, they welcomed the NHL’s finest workforce to SAP Middle on Saturday night time and really performed a extra full recreation.
Sadly for the Sharks, the tip outcome was about the identical.
The Sharks allowed objectives to David Pastrnak in each the second and third intervals and have been unable to give you a response in a 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins earlier than a sellout crowd of 17,562 on the downtown enviornment.
With Sharks defenseman Matt Benning serving a holding penalty, Pastrnak took a go from Brad Marchand and beat a screened James Reimer to offer the Bruins a 3-2 lead on the 16:45 mark of the second interval.
Pastrnak then scored an insurance coverage objective, his twenty ninth of the season, as he took a go from Patrice Bergeron and beat an outstretched Reimer on the 9:00 mark of the third interval, serving to the Bruins (31-4-4) earn their tenth win of their final 13 video games.
Logan Couture and Mario Ferraro each scored even-strength objectives for the Sharks. Defenseman Erik Karlsson had his franchise-record 14-game level streak snapped.
The Sharks are actually 1-3-2 because the Christmas break with an general document of 12-21-8 on the midway level of the season. Their 32 factors symbolize the fewest they’ve had on the halfway mark because the 1995-96 season once they had an 8-29-4 document.
“For us, we are able to simply management what we do shifting ahead,” Sharks captain Logan Couture stated. “From tonight, we performed an excellent workforce fairly shut all night time. May have gone both manner there for some time in that recreation. So we’ll take the positives.”
Particular groups have been vital. Whereas the Bruins went 1-for-2 with the person benefit, the Sharks went 0-for-4 and are actually 0-for-13 on the facility play over the past 4 video games.
“That’s a workforce that has the document they've as a result of they deserve it, they’ve earned it,” Sharks coach David Quinn stated of the Bruins. “It’s 2-2 and our energy play simply hasn’t been as much as snuff currently. It’s one thing that we’ve obtained to get out of, and it type of harm us somewhat bit once more tonight.”
The Sharks had probabilities to crawl again into the sport however have been unable to get the equalizer, as Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark improved his document this season to 22-1-1.
The Sharks are 5-9-8 this season in video games determined by two objectives or much less.
“Numerous shut losses,” Couture stated of the primary half. “The optimist (in me) says we’re proper in video games. The pessimist says that we’ve solely gained 12 of them. Dropping sucks. We’ve misplaced too many video games right here for the final couple of years.”
The Bruins entered Saturday’s recreation with the NHL’s finest document, with their final regulation-time loss approaching Dec. 9 in Arizona. Since then, Boston had gone 9-0-3 to maneuver into sole possession of the primary place within the NHL’s general standings.
“We’ve performed a number of nice groups arduous this yr and we don’t should concoct some secret system to win a hockey recreation,” Quinn stated earlier than Saturday’s recreation. “You’ve obtained to do the issues we’ve completed, clearly not sufficient this yr, however we’ve obtained to comply with the blueprint that we’ve created once we’re profitable and do it for 60 minutes and never take our foot off the pedal.”
The Sharks didn’t begin on time because the Bruins took a 2-0 lead within the first 5:32 of the opening interval.
Brad Marchand gave Boston a 1-0 lead 63 seconds in as he went from one finish to the opposite, shedding a test from Kevin Labanc, and getting previous each Ferraro and Scott Harrington earlier than he beat Reimer with a backhand excessive to the glove aspect for his twelfth objective of the season.
Simply 4:30 later, the Sharks gave an excessive amount of area within the slot to Craig Smith, who beat Reimer with one other glove-side shot that the San Jose netminder in all probability ought to have stopped.
Reimer, although, settled down after that and completed the primary interval with 10 saves in what was his first begin since Dec. 31. His finest save got here with just below two minutes to go, as he stretched out along with his stick with cease defenseman Charlie McAvoy’s wraparound try and hold it a 2-1 Boston lead.
The Sharks’ objective got here 1:25 after Smith’s objective, as Alexander Barabanov took a stretch go from Marc-Edouard Vlasic and fed Couture, who raced towards the entrance of the Bruins web and redirected the puck previous Ullmark for his fifteenth objective of the season.
Reimer wanted a great outcome. In his final six video games earlier than Saturday, he had a 2-3-1 document and a .879 save share, dropping his general save share this season to a pedestrian .896.
Between Reimer, Kaapo Kahkonen, Aaron Dell, and Eetu Makiniemi, the Sharks entered Saturday with an NHL-worst .879 save share. The Bruins’ save share was a league-best .926.
In 11 dwelling video games this season, Reimer, earlier than Saturday, was 2-7-2 with a .887 save share and three.48 objectives in opposition to common.
“I’ve performed some actually good video games, I’ve had some video games the place I’ve underperformed and a few video games the place I’ve simply been good,” Reimer stated of his first half. “There are ebbs and flows to the season and I might hope that within the final half of the season I can settle in on a very constant foundation the place I’m giving this workforce above-average, goaltending and actually good goaltending each night time.”
The Sharks have been coming off a 5-4 time beyond regulation loss to the Anaheim Geese on Friday during which they have been, at occasions, their very own worst enemy.
Turnovers led straight to a few Anaheim objectives, together with John Klingberg’s time beyond regulation winner. Tomas Hertl gave away the puck alongside the boards close to the Geese’ blue line, then didn’t backcheck arduous sufficient to get to Klingberg in time earlier than he one-timed a go from Troy Terry previous Kaapo Kahkonen.