Mikael Granlund, San Jose Sharks beat Detroit Red Wings in overtime

Mikael Granlund scored 37 seconds into overtime to give the San Jose Sharks an unforgettable 6-5 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.

After creating a turnover, Fabian Zetterlund came into the Red Wings zone on a 2-on-0 with Granlund. Zetterlund then passed to Granlund, who beat Red Wings goalie Ville Husso as the Sharks improved to 3-2-0 on their six-game road trip that ends Sunday in Las Vegas.

Granlund’s overtime goal came after the Sharks (8-17-2) engineered a massive comeback in the second period, scoring four unanswered goals almost immediately after they allowed four in a row.

“That was a pretty entertaining game,” Granlund told NBC Sports California after Thursday’s game. “I haven’t been a part of these kinds of games too often.

“I don’t know, we found a way again.”

The unlikely victory came two days after the Sharks erased a three-goal deficit late in the third period in what became a 5-4 overtime win over the New York Islanders.

It’s the first time in Sharks history that they’ve come back to win consecutive games after trailing by three or more goals in each.

“We never quit and lately, that’s been what happened to us,” said Sharks center Tomas Hertl, who scored the first of his two goals in the second period to start the rally. “We kept pushing.”

GRANLUND CALLED GAME pic.twitter.com/mzHIZxDqow

— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) December 8, 2023

With goalie Kaapo Kahkonen pulled for the extra attacker, Hertl’s second goal with 1:29 left in the third period off an assist from Granlund tied the game 5-5. The 6-on-5 goal was Hertl’s third in two games, as he scored twice late in the third period Tuesday on Long Island.

The late goal came after Granlund fired a shot from the point off the lively end boards. Sharks coach David Quinn gave goalie coach Thomas Speer credit, reluctantly, he joked, for telling the players to use the boards to their advantage.

“We don’t have a smarter player than Granlund,” Quinn said. “He shoots it off the back wall and it goes to Hertl and it goes in the back of the net.

“Just so proud of our guys.”

The second period was nearly one for the NHL record books.

The Red Wings scored four times in a span of 4:35 with Michael Rasmussen collecting two and Klim Kostin and Lucas Raymond scoring one each, with Raymond’s goal giving Detroit a 4-0 lead with 6:20 left in the second period.

Sharks starting goalie Mackenzie Blackwood was pulled. Marc-Edouard Vlasic then took a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Things looked bleak for San Jose.

But the craziness was just starting.

Hertl and Zetterlund scored 38 seconds apart with Vlasic in the box, giving the Sharks their first two shorthanded goals of the season and cutting Detroit’s lead to 4-2 with 5:14 to go in the second period.

When Vlasic came out of the penalty box, he took a pass from Kyle Burroughs, entered the Red Wings zone, and passed to a streaking Nico Sturm, who went to the net and redirected the pass past Husso at the 15:52 mark.

Then with 23 seconds left before intermission, Sturm, on a Sharks rush, took a pass from Justin Bailey, kicked it up to the blade of his stick, and beat Husso with a backhand to make it 4-4, giving San Jose four goals in 5:29.

Per the NHL, the six goals in 4:01, from Rasmussen’s first goal at the 12:51 mark to Sturm’s first at 15:52, was just one second shy of the NHL record for the fastest six goals by two teams in a single game.

Hertl got kudos for his shorthanded goal Thursday, which cut Detroit’s lead to 4-1 at the 14:08 mark of the second period and instilled some belief on the Sharks’ bench.

“When we got our first goal, we knew that we were going to come back,” Zetterlund said, “and that’s a great feeling to have.”

It was the game’s biggest moment from Quinn’s perspective.

“That first goal was so huge and the timing of it under those circumstances was huge,” He said. “It gave us a ray of hope and we weren’t able to dwell on being down 4-0 for long.

“Not only do we score (twice) shorthanded, and we got another one, and now it’s 4-3 and the whole complexion of the game changes.”

Kahkonen finishes with 10 saves in relief of Blackwood, as the Sharks are now 8-7-2 since losing 10-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 7.

ZADINA RETURNS: Filip Zadina was playing his first game in Detroit since he and the Red Wings, who drafted him sixth overall in 2018, mutually agreed to terminate his previous contract on July 1. Zadina, 24, was then signed by the Sharks to a one-year, $1.1 million deal.

Zadina left behind $4.56 million in actual money he was owed to become a free agent as he sought a fresh start with another team. With his deal in San Jose, Zadina will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights after the season.

“It’s weird to just be on a different side of the arena,” Zadina said before the game. “It’s going to be sold out … it’s going to be a huge game for us.”

EMBERSON’S PROGNOSIS: Defenseman Ty Emberson is out for the next 2-to-4 weeks with a lower-body injury, Sharks coach David Quinn said.

Emberson was injured during Sunday’s morning skate before the Sharks game with the New York Rangers, and he was placed on injured reserve on Monday, along with center Ryan Carpenter, who was injured late in San Jose’s 6-5 loss at Madison Square Garden.

Emberson was claimed off waivers from the Rangers on Sept. 30, did not play in the Sharks’ first four games of the season, but ascended to San Jose’s top defense pair late last month. In the previous five games before his injury, Emberson, 23, had a goal and two assists and was averaging 20:58 of ice time per game.