SAN JOSE — Andrei Kuzmenko scored a power-play goal at the 2:58 mark of overtime to lift the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday before an announced crowd of 11,031 at SAP Center.
With Mario Ferraro serving a holding penalty, Kuzmenko collected a loose puck near the side of the Sharks net and beat goalie Mackenzie Blackwood for his 18th goal of the season.
The Sharks are now six points back of the Chicago Blackhawks for 31st place in the NHL’s overall standings. They have four games left to play.
The Sharks and Flames were tied 2-2 at the end of the second period.
The Sharks got goals from William Eklund and Jacob MacDonald, with MacDonald’s goal, following a takeaway by Mike Hoffman, giving his team a 2-0 lead at the 2:22 mark of the second period.
The Sharks were mostly outworked by the Flames for the rest of the period and that lead disappeared.
Rasmus Andersson scored off his own rebound at the 5:35 mark of the second as some Sharks players were caught out on the ice for over a minute.
Then with Marc-Edouard Vlasic serving a tripping penalty, Nazem Kadri scored his 26th of the season, collecting a pass from Yegor Sharangovich to the left of the Sharks net and beating Mackenzie Blackwood high above the glove side.
Eklund’s goal was his 16th of the season and his sixth in the last 10 games. He had his first career hat trick on Saturday against St. Louis, with his third goal coming in overtime as the Sharks beat the Blues 3-2.
Eklund goal came at the 7:22 mark of the first period.
Eklund carried the puck across his own blue line before he found Mikael Granlund with a cross ice pass in the neutral zone. Granlund then found Fabian Zetterlund with a pass into the Flames zone, all while Eklund beat his man to the net and went forehand to backhand to beat Flames goalie and Gilroy native Dustin Wolf.
Wolf, who turns 23 next week, had made two previous starts against the Sharks in his career, but both of those came in Calgary. He earned his first NHL win against San Jose at the end of last season, but lost to the Sharks on Feb. 15, allowing six goals on 21 shots.
This was hardly Wolf’s first time playing at SAP Center. During the 2021-2022 when he played with Calgary’s AHL affiliate in Stockton, Wolf went 4-0-0 with a .953 save percentage in four games at the Shark Tank. That was the Barracuda’s last season at SAP Center before they moved to Tech CU Arena next to Sharks Ice in San Jose in 2022.
“I’m sure it means a lot,” to Wolf, Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “The one nice thing for him is he’s played this building a lot over the years. He’s very familiar with this area, so it’s good to get him back in. I know he’s excited. He was one of the first guys here at the rink this morning.”
