The San Jose Sharks scored three goals in the third period to give them a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Sunday night at the SAP Center.
The Sharks held Patrick Kane pointless, as Dylan Strome and Erik Gustafsson supplied the offense for the Blackhawks. Gustafsson played a game high 27:09 minutes.
Melker Karlsson scored two goals, and Tomas Hertl added his 29th goal of the season.
Martin Jones made 28 saves on 30 shots, while Cam Ward gave up four goals on 33 shots.
How it Happened
In similar fashion to the game against the the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, the Blackhawks had a strong start to the first period. However, they stayed out of the penalty box this time. The Hawks controlled possession for the first few shifts, until the Sharks started to even the game out.
The next ten minutes were up and down with turnovers from both teams that generated multiple odd man rushes. The Blackhawks even had a 3 on 1 at one point, but the puck bounced off of Toews stick before he could get a shot off.
After a puck flip out of the defensive zone that did not go far enough, Erik Gustafsson went for a change. The Sharks took advantage of some open space and Tim Heed gave a quick snap pass to Hertl who was swinging through the center lane. Hertl blew by Duncan Keith, who thought he had help on his right side from Gustafsson, and went five-hole on Cam Ward.
In the last minute of the first period, Gustav Forsling forced a bad pass in the neutral zone by Kevin Labanc. Brent Seabrook read the play at the blue line, stepped up and poked the puck to Alex DeBrincat, which sprung him on a 2-on-1 with Dylan Strome. DeBrincat slid the puck over to Strome who sniped it upstairs on Martin Jones. It was Strome’s 17th goal of season and 14th with the Blackhawks.
Near the start of the second period, Timo Meier found open space in the high slot and tipped a low point shot by Heed. Nothing Ward could do on that. Looked like it hit Brandon Saad’s skate as well.
Then Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews took over for a few shifts. They both made some highly skilled plays and Kane just missed going five hole on Jones. That unit was bound to score.
Not much later, Toews set up Gustafsson with a give-an-go off the boards. Gustafsson had some room to pick a corner and wristed a shot past Jones, who was screened by Chris Kunitz . It was Gustafsson’s 13th goal of the season and he now has ten points in his last six games (1 G, 9 A).
The rest of the second period was entertaining. It was fast and there were not many whistles. Gustafsson broke up a 2-on-1 with a vintage Seabrook dive, Ward stood tall multiple times and stacked the pads old school style, and the Blackhawks just missed a couple dangerous chances on a period ending power play.
Cam Ward with a pair of stops … pic.twitter.com/GzHoT6WZuv
— Cristiano Simonetta (@CMS_74_) March 4, 2019
Almost five minutes into the third period, Joe Thornton won a puck battle over Artem Anisimov near the goal line. Thornton circled out front and gave a hard pass across the slot to Sorensen who put it home to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead.
Less than four minutes later, Brent Burns picked up a puck at the blue line during a delayed penalty and snapped home a rising shot that tipped off Melker Karlsson’s stick out front.
Chicago did not give up and tried to grind out a third goal to get them back in the game. Jeremy Colliton pulled the goalie with over three minutes to go, but the Sharks did not give much room to the Blackhawks on the resulting 6-on-5.
Karlsson iced the game with an empty netter.
The effort by the Blackhawks was there. For most of the game, the Blackhawks played at the speed and tenacity needed to compete with a contending team like the Sharks. San Jose is just a better team the moment and found a way to pull out two points.
The Blackhawks are looking at an eight point gap between them and a Wild Card spot.
Three Stars
1. Melker Karlsson – 2 goals.
2. Erik Gustafsson – 1 goal, 5 shots, 3 hits, 3 blocks, 27:09 TOI.
3. Tomas Hertl – 1 goal, 4 shots, 18:55 TOI.
What’s Next?
The Blackhawks head back to Chicago to take on Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres at the United Center on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.