Macklin Celebrini did everything he could Wednesday night to give the San Jose Sharks and his new friend, Luke Schumann, a victory over the Minnesota Wild.
Celebrini was all over the ice as he recorded five points, including his first NHL hat trick, and assisted on Will Smith’s tying goal with under a minute left in regulation time.
But the Sharks simply could not slow down the Wild, as Kirill Kaprizov scored at the 1:01 mark of overtime to give the Wild an entertaining 8-7 win before an announced crowd of 18,675 at Xcel Energy Center.
Celebrini’s second goal, his 23rd of the season, gave the Sharks a 4-3 lead at the 12:28 mark of the second period. But the Wild responded with power-play goals from Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek before the end of the second, with Eriksson Ek’s goal coming with 12 seconds before intermission, to take a 5-4 lead.
Eriksson Ek, playing his first game since Feb. 22, finished with four goals to help hand the Sharks their sixth straight loss. He added two goals in the first 2:06 of the third period, with the first coming on the power play, to give the Wild a 7-4 lead.
Celebrini assisted on Nikolai Kovalenko’s goal at the 4:44 mark of the third period to cut the deficit to two, as he broke the Sharks’ record for points in a season (60) held by Pat Falloon. Celebrini then completed the hat trick at the 10:02 mark of the third off an assist from Will Smith.
Smith then scored his 17th of the season with 52 seconds left in regulation time, off an assist from Celebrini, who now has 62 points with four games left in the season.
But the Sharks’ penalty kill was a disaster, as it went 1-for-4 in San Jose’s sour start to a four-game road trip that continues Friday in Edmonton against the Oilers.
Tyler Toffoli and Carl Grundstrom also scored for the Sharks and Smith added three assists in the loss, which also saw defenseman Mario Ferraro leave the game near the end of the second period with a lower body injury.
Ferraro crumpled to the ice after he blocked a shot by Matt Boldy with his ankle just before Eriksson Ek’s second goal. He did not return.
Last Friday, Celebrini met Schumann, a Make-A-Wish kid who was diagnosed with a rare form of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin). His parents, John and Lindsey, discovered a lump under his armpit on May 14, 2024, a day before he turned 5 years old, and Luke soon had to undergo surgery to remove the tumor, followed by chemotherapy treatments throughout the summer.
The two spent two days together last week.
“It does bring a little joy and perspective to our group,” Celebrini said.
Wednesday’s game marked what was likely the last time the Sharks will face Hall of Fame-bound goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who is presumably set to retire after the season. In 29 career games against the Sharks, Fleury, before Wednesday, had a 20-5-4 record with a .940 save percentage and three shutouts.
Just this season, in two games against the Sharks, Fleury was 2-0-0 with a .952 save percentage.
The Sharks got to Fleury at the 12:11 mark of the first period, as William Eklund took a pass from Alexander Wennberg and fed it out front to Toffoli, who beat the 40-year-old goalie glove side from the slot for his 29th goal of the season.
The Wild scored twice before the end of the first period to take the lead.
After left shot Sharks defenseman Henry Thrun broke his stick and played with right-shot Toffoli’s stick, Marcus Johansson took a pass from Frederick Gaudreau and beat Sharks goalie Alexander Georgiev with a shot from 40 feet out at the 14:16 mark of the first.
Originally Published:
Source: Paradise Post
