Macklin Celebrini and Barclay Goodrow combined for seven points, and Tyler Toffoli scored his 300th NHL goal as the San Jose Sharks defeated the Calgary Flames 6-3 for their third straight win.
Yaroslav Askarov earned his 12th win of the season to take the league lead among rookie goalies.
Game Recap
The Sharks jumped out to a hot start with two goals in the first six minutes. First, John Klingberg finished a perfectly executed give-and-go with Celebrini for his fifth goal in as many games. For the second goal, Vincent Iorio made a stretch pass, which bounced off the backboards. Zack Ostapchuk deflected the pass to avoid an icing call, and the puck fell right to Goodrow for a point-blank goal and an early 2-0 San Jose lead.
However, the Flames responded by controlling the puck for a long stretch, eventually scoring back-to-back goals a few minutes apart. Both came in transition, first on a one-timer by Blake Coleman and then on a wrist shot by Ryan Lomberg to tie the game. The Sharks got the final goal of the period when a close-range shot by Celebrini snuck through Dustin Wolf and sat on the goal line before Goodrow scored an even easier goal than his first one to give San Jose the lead after 20 minutes.
After the offensive chaos of the first period, the second period featured no goals but plenty of physicality, with both teams dishing out several hits. Calgary received slightly more scoring opportunities thanks to two power plays, but the Sharks killed both of them.
The Flames opened the third period with a deluge of shots, but Askarov made a series of athletic saves to keep them from scoring any goals. When the Sharks finally got control of the puck, Celebrini made an excellent spin move to get to the crease and set up a shot which deflected off Wolf, back off Celebrini and into the net.
Following a stretch in which the two teams traded opportunities and the Sharks failed to score on a power play, San Jose expanded on the lead when William Eklund’s failed wraparound slid right to Toffoli, who buried the shot for his 300th career goal. Despite the Sharks seeming to gain momentum, the Flames answered almost immediately with another transition goal, this time on a wrist shot by Nazem Kadri.
The Flames made significant efforts to stage a late comeback, including pulling Wolf for an extra skater, but the Sharks made enough stops before Celebrini sealed the game with an empty-net goal.
The Sharks improve to 17-14-3, remaining in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, while the Flames fall to 13-17-4 and sit second-to-last in the conference. Both teams play next on Thursday, the Sharks hosting the Dallas Stars, while the Flames host the Seattle Kraken.
