SAN JOSE, Calif. – A six-game San Jose Sharks homestand ended with a third-period collapse and another frustrating loss.
After losing a two-goal lead late in the third period, and following a scoreless overtime, the Sharks were outscored 3-2 in the shootout and lost 5-4 to the Anaheim Ducks before a sellout crowd of 17,562 at SAP Center.
It was the Sharks’ third straight shootout loss, as their record fell to 3-8-3.
Leading by two, the Sharks allowed two goals in the final 4:02 of the third period, as Mason McTavish scored on a breakaway after he served a penalty and Adam Henrique scored with 1:28 to go after the Ducks pulled goalie Anthony Stolarz for the extra attacker.
The Sharks outshot the Ducks 52-25 through three periods and overtime.
Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro left the game late in the third period after he was hit in the head by a puck.
The Sharks could have been discouraged Saturday after they allowed just four shots in the first period and still found themselves down by one goal.
But Timo Meier and Luke Kunin responded with second-period goals, breathing new life into the announced sellout crowd of 17,562 at SAP Center.
Tomas Hertl scored his second goal of the season in the third period, snapping a 12-game goal drought, as the Sharks finished their homestand with a 2-2-2 record.
The Sharks’ next game is Thursday in St. Louis as they begin a four-game road trip against the Blues.
Erik Karlsson assisted on Meier’s goal at the 8:09 mark of the second period, giving him a franchise-tying 19th point in 14 games to start the season.
Meier’s goal, his fifth in five games, was a blistering one-timer past Stolarz and tied the game 2-2. Kunin then snapped an 11-game goal drought with a power play goal with 3:25 left in the second period.
The Sharks had been outscored 8-4 in the first period through the first five games of the homestand, and even though they allowed just four shots in the first 20 minutes Saturday, that trend continued.
After Kevin Labanc scored his second of the season at the 3:54 mark of the first period, the Sharks allowed two goals on the next two Ducks shots.
Brett Leason scored at the 12:06 mark to tie the game off a pass from John Klingberg, and Max Comtois scored off a saucer pass from Trevor Zegras, after he got behind the Sharks’ defense, to give Anaheim a 2-1 lead at the 17:20 mark.
The Sharks lost 6-5 in a shootout to Zegras, Troy Terry, and the Ducks on Tuesday. Those two were among a handful of other elite players the Sharks faced on this on this homestand, a list that included Mark Stone, Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov, Aleksander Barkov, and Matthew Tkachuk.
The Sharks only slowed down those players with varying success. They had lost three straight games since their 4-3 overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 27, dropping their record to a meager 3-8-2 before Saturday.
“You’ve just got to take away time and space and you can’t give them an inch, because if you do, you’re gonna pay,” Sharks coach David Quinn said of playing star players. “We’ve got to make sure we just bear down from a defensive standpoint, regardless of who we’re playing.”
Karlsson’s second-period assist marked his 13th point in the last five games,
Before Saturday, the only other player in Sharks history to have more than 18 points in the first 13 games was Craig Janney, who had four goals and 15 assists in that time to start the 1995-96 season.
Owen Nolan had 18 points, nine goals, and nine assists, in his first 13 games of the 1999-2000 season, and added an assist in his 14th game that year.
The last Sharks player before this season to have 10 goals in 13 games was Patrick Marleau, who had 10 at the start of both the 2009-10 and 2012-13 seasons.
Marleau would wind up with a career-best 44 goals for one season in 2009-10 and in the 2012-13 season, Marleau had nine goals in his first five games to help him reach double-digits so quickly.
Karlsson’s goal production had mostly come in his last four games before Saturday, as he registered seven goals and five assists in home games against Toronto, Tampa Bay, Anaheim and Florida.
For the season, Karlsson, before Saturday, had scored or assisted on 18 of the Sharks’ 32 goals, or an NHL-best percentage of 56.3 for any individual.
Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said he saw Karlsson in the players’ parking lot at SAP Center after Tuesday’s game, “and had some really unkind words for him, in jest.
“It’s got to be critical that we are stuck to him like Velcro,” Eakins said. “The Sharks always have utilized those low-to-high plays. It’s on the d-man’s stick and it’s either coming to the net or they’re shooting for sticks. That gives teams fits.”
