The San Jose Sharks gave up three goals in the second period, including a backbreaker with just 27 seconds left before intermission in a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday at UBS Arena.
The Sharks managed just 11 shots in the first two periods, but one was a goal by Barclay Goodrow, whose shot from near the boards inside the Islanders zone got past goalie Marcus Hogberg and tied the game 1-1 with 10:02 left in the second period.
But the Islanders responded 40 seconds later, as a long pass from Adam Pelech got through the neutral zone to Kyle Palmieri to set up a 2-on-1. Palmieri then fed Brock Nelson, who beat Sharks goalie Alexander Georgiev from in close for his 13th goal of the season.
On the play, Fabian Zetterlund came off the Sharks bench but lost track of Nelson, who scooted up the ice to set up the odd-man rush, as Cody Ceci was back defending another Islanders player.
“We just can’t make these boneheaded mistakes that end up in the back of our net,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said.
“I just hopped out there and tried to get on the backcheck,” Sharks forward Will Smith said. “But it was kind of a choppy little pass, and it ended up going in.”
The Sharks then gave up a goal to Noah Dobson at the end of the second period and one to Ryan Pulock just 1:03 into the third period, paving the way to their fifth loss in the last six games.
The Sharks opened the road trip with a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings, hoping the rare offensive outburst would signify things to come. Instead, it’s been a blip on the radar, as the Sharks — the NHL’s lowest-scoring team since the start of December — have now scored just one goal or less four times in their last five games.
Georgiev finished with 27 saves as the Sharks fell to 1-2-0 on a five-game road trip that ends with games against the Boston Bruins on Monday and the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
The Sharks were without leading scorer Tyler Toffoli, who sustained a lower-body injury during pregame warmups and was a late scratch. San Jose had to play Collin Graf, who would have otherwise been a healthy scratch.
Toffoli is considered day-to-day, Warsofsky said, as his status is unclear for Monday’s matinee game in Boston.
The Sharks were also without defenseman Timothy Liljegren, who, along with goalie Yaroslav Askarov, caught a flu bug. While Liljegren was too ill to play Saturday, Askarov backed up Georgiev.
Toffoli entered the weekend with a team-leading 17 goals, and Liljegren has regularly skated on the Sharks second defense pair with Mario Ferraro. Liljegren is seventh among all Sharks skaters in average time on ice (18:22) and has eight points in 34 games this season.
Georgiev started the first two games of the Sharks’ road trip and went 1-3-0 with a solid .914 save percentage in his last four games before Saturday. Saturday’s game marked the first time this season that a Sharks goalie started three straight games.
Georgiev, who turns 29 on Feb. 10, is in the final year of a three-year, $10.2 million contract he signed with the Colorado Avalanche in July 2022. A pending unrestricted free agent, Georgiev’s cap hit is $2.924 million as Colorado retained 14% of his contract in the deal that, in part, sent Mackenzie Blackwood to the Avalanche.
Georgiev and the Sharks were playing an Islanders team that had lost five of its last eight games and entered eight points out of a playoff spot on Saturday. The Isles also ranked last in the NHL on both the penalty kill and the power play at 11.9% and penalty kill at 67.0%
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Source: www.mercurynews.com