The Sharks couldn’t have asked for much more from Zach Sawchenko on Sunday in his first NHL start.
Sawchenko made 33 saves in regulation time but Rickard Rakell scored at the 14-second mark of overtime in a 3-2 Sharks loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday at Honda Center.
Logan Couture and Marc-Edouard Vlasic both scored for the Sharks, who have now lost four of their last five games, including an 8-0 pasting at the hands of the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
The Sharks thought they had taken a 3-2 lead on a shorthanded goal by Jake Middleton with just over seven minutes left in the third period. But the Ducks challenged for offside, and it was determined after a review that Middleton had entered the Anaheim zone before the puck, handled by Matt Nieto, did.
Starting on Jan. 22, James Reimer started 13 consecutive games before he was injured in a March 1 game with the Vegas Golden Knights. Adin Hill had been dealing with a lower-body injury for most of that time, so Sawchenko was Reimer’s primary backup for almost all of the last six weeks.
Reimer is now considered week-to-week and Hill is slowly progressing from his own malady and might be back at some point this week.
Sawchenko had appeared in four Sharks games this season prior to Sunday, including Saturday, when he came on in relief of Alex Stalock in the loss to the Predators at SAP Center.
“Everybody wants to respond to that game and come up with a better effort,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said before the game. “We’ve got to better in front of our own net and give (Sawchenko) us a chance to get into the game.”
The Sharks’ loss Saturday was their worst shutout loss on home ice since Dec. 5, 1991, when Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins walked away with an 8-0 over expansion San Jose at the Cow Palace.
The word “embarrassed” was used more than once by the Sharks in their postgame comments. The only redeeming quality about Saturday’s loss was that they were able to come back in less than 24 hours and try to erase the game from their collective memories.
Coach Bob Boughner didn’t address the Sharks players immediately after the game, leaving the leaders in the room to discuss it with everyone else.
“Tonight for me is a response game,” Boughner said Sunday afternoon. “People are looking at us to see how we’re going to bounce back, and that’s going to be the message when I go in there (before the game).
“It’s not about systems at this point in the year. It’s playing with some pride, picking ourselves off the ground, and dusting ourselves off. Every team is going to have a blowout. It’s happening to the best teams. You’ve got to figure out how to respond to that.”
Couture scored at the 7:47 of the first period, as he took a pass from Timo Meier, came down the right side, and beat Ducks goalie Anthony Stolarz five-hole for his 19th goal of the season and his first in five games.
Both the Sharks and Ducks started their fourth lines Sunday, and Jeffrey Viel and Sam Carrick dropped the gloves just three seconds after the game began. Viel was inserted into the lineup
Boughner dressed Viel on Sunday instead of Ryan Dzingel, who was a healthy scratch for the first time since he was claimed off of waivers by the Sharks on Feb. 21. Dzingel has one goal in six games for the Sharks.
Boughner also said defenseman Radim Simek suffered an upper-body injury in Saturday’s loss, so Santeri Hatakka was recalled from the Barracuda of the AHL and started the game paired with Brent Burns. Simek is considered day-to-day.
