The Sharks caught a bad break in the third period of their game against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Oh, they still made mistakes in the final 20 minutes, such as taking a delay of game penalty to set up a 5-on-3 goal for the Senators, or making a bad change, which led to another Ottawa goal.
But with the game still tied early in the third period, a Ridly Greig shot into the Sharks’ zone took a weird carom off the boards. The puck then went to the front of an open Sharks net, after goalie Vitek Vanecek left his crease to play the Greig pass.
That left an open net for Tim Stützle, who 19th of the season, giving the Senators the lead for good as they handed the Sharks a 5-3 loss at Canadian Tire Centre.
The Sharks allowed consecutive goals to Brady Tkachuk, Stützle, and David Perron, and their third-period foibles continued in what became their eighth straight loss.
Tyler Toffoli, Timothy Liljegren and Will Smith all scored power play goals for the Sharks, with Liljegren’s goal at the 9:47 mark of the second period giving San Jose a 2-1 lead.
The Sharks carried that lead into the third period. But with Mario Ferraro (roughing) and Collin Graf (delay of game, puck over glass), a shot by Tkachuk appeared to go off the skate of Marc-Edouard Vlasic before it got past Vanecek 1:26 into the third period.
The Sharks now own a 9-7-4 record in games where they held a lead after two periods.
The Sharks took a one-goal lead into the third period after scoring a pair of power play goals.
After taking a pass from Smith, Toffoli sent a pass to the front of the net intended for Macklin Celebrini. But the puck went off Jake Sanderson’s skate and past Senators goalie Linus Ullmark, tying the game 1-1 at the 5:17 mark.
The Sharks took the lead 4:30 later. Klim Kostin, a new addition to the Sharks’ second power play unit, took control of the puck to the side of the Senators’ net, and sent it to Alex Wennberg near the boards. Wennberg then sent the puck to Liljegren, whose shot from inside the blue line got through traffic and past Ullmark for his fifth goal of the season.
The Sharks outshot the Senators 12-8 in the first period but still trailed by a goal.
The Sharks dominated the first few minutes, outshooting the Senators 9-1 before Matthew Highmore was called for holding San Jose forward Klim Kostin. The Sharks had two shots on goal in the with the man advantage before they turned the puck over in the Ottawa zone, leading to a breakaway for Shane Pinto, who beat Vanecek for a 1-0 lead at the 11:05 mark of the first.
The Sharks were without Henry Thrun on Saturday. Thrun left Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens early in the third period with an upper body injury. Thrun also missed the final five minutes of the first period of the game, which San Jose lost 4-3 in overtime.
Thrun, who had been on the Sharks’ top defense pair since Cody Ceci was traded to the Dallas Stars on Feb. 1, is considered day-to-day, coach Ryan Warsofsky said. Warsofsky added that it was too soon to say whether the team would need to recall another defenseman from the Barracuda of the AHL. The Sharks are carrying six defensemen with their next game on Monday in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.
Jack Thompson replaced Thrun in the Sharks’ lineup and began the game alongside Marc-Edouard Vlasic on the third defense pair.
Timothy Liljegren took Thrun’s spot on the Sharks’ top pair alongside Jake Walman, and Shakir Mukhamadullin, who was impressive during Thursday’s loss in Montreal, was paired with Mario Ferraro.
The Sharks entered Saturday with a 0-1-2 record on this seven-game road trip, with all three losses by one goal. Their last win before Saturday came on Jan. 27 at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins. San Jose is 0-4-3 since, with five losses by one goal.
Vanecek is coming off a 33-save performance against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, and enters Saturday with a 3-9-3 record and an .882 save percentage in 17 games this season. Vanecek’s last win came on Nov. 29 when the Sharks beat the Seattle Kraken 8-5, as he missed six weeks from Dec.18 to Feb.6 with a fractured cheekbone.
The Sharks faced a Senators team that had lost five straight games before Saturday to fall out of an Eastern Conference playoff spot, but did get back three significant forwards in Brady Tkachuk, Shane Pinto and Josh Norris. Those three players, before Saturday, had combined for 97 points in 149 games this season.
Tkachuk missed the last two Senators games after starring for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off last month. Pinto (upper body) has missed Ottawa’s last four games, and Norris, the Sharks’ first-round draft pick in 2017, has missed the last six games with an upper-body ailment.
