SAN JOSE – It’s tough to say where the San Jose Sharks would be in the Western Conference standings right now — at the midway point of the season — if they had held onto some of the third-period leads they had last month.
Would they actually be in the mix for a playoff spot instead of near the bottom of the NHL standings?
Probably not. But from the Sharks’ standpoint, dwelling on the past is perhaps useless. What’s done is done.
But going forward, the Sharks would love to repeat their third-period effort from Thursday, when they, aside from two or three sequences, looked significantly more composed in their own end in protecting a one-goal lead than in other recent games.
Rookie goalie Yaroslav Askarov certainly did his part, making 11 saves — including a dynamic stop on Nick Paul — over the final 20 minutes as the Sharks preserved a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. San Jose also killed a third-period roughing penalty to Macklin Celebrini.
The Sharks’ win snapped an eight-game losing streak. It also gave the group a badly needed dose of confidence as they finally held onto a late lead against a playoff-caliber team, with games against the equally dangerous New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights on the near horizon.
“I think we when we realized when they got a couple looks off of turnovers, we nipped it in the bud, and we didn’t let it continue to unravel,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We kept our composure. We understood what was going on in the hockey game. We matured a lot tonight.”
In December, the Sharks held and lost third-period leads to Utah, Winnipeg, Colorado, Edmonton, and Vegas, in that order. In those five games, the Sharks managed just one point, with that coming in their 3-2 overtime loss to the Oilers on Dec. 21. That was only because of Askarov’s exceptional 39-save performance at Rogers Place.
But while the Sharks (12-23-6) left nine points on the table during that stretch, the important part was that they finally learned from those mistakes and should be a better team for it down the road. They also stuck together during some tough times.
Thursday, while the Sharks still gave a handful of quality scoring chances, they competed harder all over the ice and did a better job of ending plays in their zone.
“We’ve been in this situation a lot during this little skid that we went through here, a lot of opportunities to close it out,” said Sharks alternate captain and defenseman Mario Ferraro, who scored a goal and fought his college teammate, Mitchell Chaffee, after Chaffee’s questionable second period hit on Nikolai Kovalenko.
“But tonight, I just thought we kept pushing when we could. Even after the (third period) penalty kill, we kept trying to do our thing. Yeah, they got their chances. … But I thought we did a much better job tonight, as opposed to other nights, of playing with a little more confidence and not really thinking about just winning, but doing what it takes to win, getting pucks deep, and we did a much better job of that in the third today.”
The Sharks also fed off Askarov, who looked utterly unfazed under Tampa Bay’s pressure as he competed against one of the goalies he admires in Russian countryman Vasilevskiy.
“It was super exciting playing against him,” Askarov said of Vasilevskiy, who had 23 saves. “He was standing on his head tonight, too. Like, how many breakaways we had? He was good.”
“Funny guy. We get along really well. We joke around,” said Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic of Askarov, who is now 2-2- 2 this season with a. 921 save percentage. “He’s very confident out there. I love that he loves to play the puck. Nice kid, good kid, and very good.”
Vlasic had just 11:56 of ice time in his first game of the season. But he looked comfortable for the most part and has something to build on as the second half of the season gets underway.
“It felt like I was playing my first NHL game,” Vlasic said. “It was a lot of fun. I had a blast coming back, playing against a great team and playing with these guys. We played well tonight. Made my job easier coming back. We had energy, excitement.”
Warsofsky had two of his rookies, Celebrini and Collin Graf, on the ice for the final 30 seconds of the game, showing some trust in the young guys, especially Graf, to help finish off the win.
“Mack can make plays under pressure,” Warsofsky said. “That’s something I’ve developed in my coaching: sometimes you’ve got to go with guys that can make plays (defending a) 6-on-5, and I think Mack can do that.
“I thought Graf had a really good, solid hockey game where we could trust him. He was doing things away from the puck that we really need to focus on. And he’s smart. He’s a smart individual, so when I called his name, he was a little surprised, but he did a good job.”
The Sharks arrive at the season’s midway point in 31st place in the league standings. Perhaps they should have more than 30 points at this juncture, but they’re hoping Thursday’s win can be a springboard to better things, especially if they can develop a blueprint for closing out games.
“When you don’t get the result, when you struggle, you (need to) dig in deep, and our guys did that,” Warsofsky said. “Proud of the guys. The leadership group did a really good job I thought, of getting our younger guys prepared and getting the whole group ready for 60 minutes. So it was good.”
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