SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Sharks’ last home game of the 2022 calendar year ended in typically bitter fashion.
The Sharks coughed up a two-goal lead in the third period then saw Tony DeAngelo score 70 seconds into overtime, as the Philadelphia Flyers earned a 4-3 come-from-behind win before a sellout crowd of 17,562 at SAP Center on Thursday night.
Tomas Hertl had three points, Erik Karlsson reached 50 points for the season and goalie Kaapo Kahkonen had 22 saves as he was denied his first victory in a month.
Hertl scored in the first and second periods and now has four goals in his last five games, but the Sharks fell to 4-10-6 at home this season. San Jose’s next game is on New Year’s Eve at American Airlines Center against the Dallas Stars.
Hertl’s second goal came on a power play, as he stood beside the Flyers’ net and redirected a pass from Timo Meier past goalie Samuel Ersson to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead at the 8:29 mark of the second period.
Hertl and Karlsson also assisted on a third period even strength goal by Kevin Labanc, who snapped a shot past Ersson at the 52-second mark of the third period for a 3-1 Sharks lead.
Owen Tippett and Scott Laughton scored in the third period for the Flyers.
Karlsson, who leads all NHL defensemen in points, also assisted on Hertl’s first period even strength goal, finding him in the slot as he stood in the corner to the left of the Flyers’ net.
Karlsson’s two-point night extended his point streak to a career-best 11 games, the longest point streak by a defenseman in Sharks franchise history.
The last time a Sharks player had a point streak of 11 games or longer was during the 2005-06 season, when Jonathan Cheechoo had points in 12 straight games from Dec. 26, 2005 thru Jan. 24, 2006.
Karlsson’s play helped the Sharks come into Thursday with the NHL’s sixth-best power play for the month of December, as the unit had connected on 10 of 35 attempts with the man advantage.
Before the game with the Flyers, the Sharks’ power play ranked 14th in the NHL at 22.8%. It was 19.7% at the start of the month.
Kahkonen came into Thursday with a 0-2-0 record, an .831 save percentage and a 4.88 goals against average in three games this month. His last start before Thursday was Dec. 18 at home against the Calgary Flames, as he allowed five goals on 25 shots in a 5-2 Sharks loss.
Kahkonen stopped eight of nine shots in the first period, including key stops on DeAngelo and forward Travis Konecny.
