The San Jose Sharks enjoyed a rare offensive outburst on Tuesday night as they ended a three-game losing streak.
William Eklund, Mikael Granlund, Tyler Toffoli, and Mario Ferraro all scored third-period goals to help lead the Sharks to a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena to open a five-game road trip.
Eklund and linemate Macklin Celebrini also had two assists each, and goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves for just his second win in a Sharks uniform.
The six goals the Sharks scored were the most in any one game since Nov. 29 when they beat the Seattle Kraken 8-5 at SAP Center.
“We’ve had a lot of games where we only score two or three goals,” Celebrini said. “So it feels good to see it go in the back of the net, and we were getting (offense) from everyone.”
Jan Rutta and Nico Sturm also scored for the Sharks, who continue their road trip on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Sharks led 4-2 midway through the third period before the Red Wings scored off a set play on a faceoff against Celebrini’s line with Toffoli and Eklund. Dylan Larkin controlled the draw against Celebrini inside the Sharks’ zone and quickly got the puck over to Lucas Raymond, who beat Georgiev to cut San Jose’s lead to one at the 9:56 mark.
The Sharks responded just 61 seconds later. Celebrini put a shot toward the net inside the Red Wings’ zone, and after a scramble, Toffoli collected the loose puck and beat goalie Ville Husso with a sharp-angle shot to restore the Sharks’ two-goal lead.
“We wanted to get on them right away,” Celebrini said. “We just kind of wanted to answer because we know that wasn’t good enough on that (Red Wings) goal.”
Georgiev snapped a personal six-game losing streak in his first win since Dec. 12, although he has played better of late, stopping 62 of 67 shots in games last week against the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Hockey Club.
Despite being outshot 12-6 in the first period, the Sharks had a 2-0 lead.
Rutta’s second goal of the season came after Alexander Wennberg won a battle behind the Red Wings’ net and sent the puck in front to Will Smith, whose quick shot was stopped by Husso. The rebound came to Rutta, whose blast from inside the blue line beat Husso for his first goal since Dec. 2.
The Sharks gave up nine of the next 10 shots as they had trouble breaking out of their own zone and also had to kill a holding penalty to Ferraro. But at the end of that kill, defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic sent a puck ahead to Eklund, who carried it through the neutral zone before he sent a nifty pass to Sturm, who skated in and put a move on Husso before scoring his fifth of the season.
Vladimir Tarasenko got one of those goals back for the Red Wings at the 1:26 mark of the second period. Inside the Sharks’ zone, Wings forward Jonatan Berggren sent a pass across the ice that was retrieved by defenseman Simon Edvinsson. Georgiev stopped his shot from a sharp angle, but Tarasenko was near the net and fired a shot that beat Georgiev for his first goal since Dec. 1.
The game marked Jake Walman’s return to Detroit, where he spent two-plus seasons before he and a 2024 second-round draft pick were surprisingly traded to the Sharks for future considerations.
The trade had to feel like pennies from heaven for the Sharks, as Walman came into Tuesday leading the team’s skaters in average time on ice (22:49) and all defensemen with 26 points in 32 games.
Walman, 28, spent the first 57 games of his NHL career with the St. Louis Blues before he was traded to Detroit in March 2022. In 145 games with the Red Wings, Walman had 43 points but never had an opportunity in Detroit like the one he’s received in San Jose.
Walman downplayed the emotional aspect of his return after Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman jettisoned him for nothing. But his coach said it was human nature for any athlete to want to do well after being cast aside.
“There’s emotion and feelings that go into playing your former team,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Living here, growing up here, whatever it might be, you have to live through those feelings and mask them as best as you can, but you can’t cover up everything. The biggest thing for him is keeping his game simple, getting his legs into it.”
LINEUP CHANGES: Wennberg returned to the Sharks’ lineup Tuesday after missing Saturday’s game due to illness. Wennberg now has five assists in his last 12 games. With Wennberg returning, Carl Grundstrom came out of the lineup. Vlasic re-entered the lineup and played his 1,299th career NHL game after being a healthy scratch for the last three games. He replaced Henry Thrun.
WINGS ON FIRE: Since former Sharks head coach Todd McLellan took over as Detroit’s bench boss on Dec. 26, the Red Wings, before Tuesday, were 7-1-0 and two points out of a playoff spot. A major reason for the Wings’ success has been their power play, which is 14-for-28 during the team’s streak.
The Sharks killed both of the penalties they took against Detroit.
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