SAN JOSE: Another sellout crowd at SAP Center came to see the Sharks on Saturday night.
Four different Sharks scored. Tyler Toffoli got the Sharks on the board first. Followed by Keifer Sherwood and Noah Allan, Igor Chernyshov had two goals as well. But the Sharks have plenty of mistakes to clean up before their road trip this week. However, no one will complain about getting 2 points and adding another victory to the win column.
“There were a lot of areas that we weren’t very good at,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “But can’t apologize for two points in this league, so we’ve got to take it and move on and get better in a lot of areas.”
Igor Chernyshov had a big night, including the game winner in 3-on-3 overtime, taking a pass from Macklin Celebrini and putting it home past Kings’ goalie Anton Forsberg. Celebrini made a fantastic defensive play deep in the Sharks’ zone to steal the puck from Kings’ defenseman Quinton Byfield and make his way up the ice to assist on the game winner.
It was another impressive offensive performance by the Sharks, but goaltender Yaroslav Askarov was magnificent. He kept the Sharks in it once again. After making 23 saves on Thursday night against the Panthers, he backed it up with 31 saves, including 12 in a third period where the Sharks were on their heels and the Kings were outworking them all over the ice.
“We all believe in him,” Toffoli said of Askarov. “We know what he’s capable of, and he’s pretty much won us both these games. So we have a lot more to give, and we all know that we can all get better. But we’re definitely in a good place.”
Ivar Stenberg also got his first NHL point. With the Sharks on a power play, Stenberg, on the left flank, took a pass from Celebrini and found Toffoli on the doorstep for a tap-in goal.
Unlike many 2nd overall picks, the Sharks don’t need Stenberg to come and be a franchise savior, which definitely takes the pressure off the young player and allows him to grow and flourish into a star in this league.
“He’s a great player,” Toffoli said of Stenberg. “He does everything on the ice. I think there’s a reason why he’s playing with (Wennberg) and playing against other teams’ top lines, and obviously, very happy, selfishly, that he made that pass to me.”
Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky talked highly of Stenberg as well after the game, “It’s a different ice sheet, right? It’s a bigger sheet over there, so he’s getting used to the walls and getting used to the game, the speed of the game. It’s a lot quicker in the National Hockey League. I think he’s gotten better every single period, and I thought he was really good tonight. One of our best forwards.”
Although the Sharks got the win, they struggled and were careless with the puck throughout the night. The Sharks had 25 giveaways. Including one that tied the game. Noah Allan tried clearing the puck up the boards, and it went straight to Byfield, who passed it to Panarin to tie the game at 4.
The Sharks also had three penalties and gave up two power play goals. The penalty kill struggled.
Coach Ryan Warsofsky sees the mistakes as easily correctable. “We needed to kind of simplify our game,” Warsofsky said. “There’s going to be nights where you don’t really have your hands, maybe you don’t have your legs, but you’ve got to have your brain. That was kind of the message, and we’ve just got to play harder. We’ve got to start finishing and being a little bit more physical. Those are systematic things that we need to do better.”
Three seasons ago, the Sharks were the worst team in hockey and lost their first 11 games. Now they just captured their first 2-0 start since 2021. It is safe to say that the future is teal.
The Sharks now head out on the road for their first road trip of the season. The Sharks will fly out to Dallas on Sunday to face the Stars on Monday.
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