SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Sharks couldn’t overcome their offensive woes in their first home game of the season.
Sebastian Aho redirected a shot from Brett Pesce past James Reimer with 1:58 left in the third period to break a tie and help hand the Sharks a 2-1 loss in front of a sellout crowd of 17,562 at SAP Center on Saturday.
The Sharks managed only a first-period goal from Evgeny Svechnikov and now only have four goals in their first three games as they fell to 0-3-0 this season.
The Sharks were outshot 25-11 in the first two periods as goalie James Reimer finished with 33 saves.
Reimer had kept the Sharks in the lead until the final minute of the second period when the pressing Carolina Hurricanes finally tied the game.
Kevin Labanc carried the puck over the Sharks’ blue line but had it stolen from him by Andrei Svechnikov, who raced back into the San Jose end. He passed it to Martin Necas, who slid the puck under Reimer for his second goal of the season with 23 seconds left before intermission.
Second periods were a huge issue for the Sharks last week in Prague, and that problem continued Friday.
The Sharks didn’t get their first shot on goal in the second until there was 6:38 left and the Sharks were on the power play. Stationed in front of the net, Labanc took a pass from Erik Karlsson from below the goal line, but his shot point blank range was stopped by Antti Raanta.
The Sharks had been outshot 12-0 by the Hurricanes up until that point and were outshot 25-11 through the first two periods.
Against the Nashville Predators last week in the Global Series games, the Sharks were outscored 5-1 and outshot 23-16 in the two games by the Nashville Predators.
Svechnikov’s goal came at the 17:48 mark of the first period, as he took a pass from Jaycob Megna and slid a shot from near the faceoff dot past Antti Raanta for a 1-0 Sharks lead.
Svechnikov wasn’t sure where he would be playing this season before he signed to a two-way contract by the Sharks in early September. He remained with the team through training camp, and made the trip with the Sharks to Europe, where he played in one of the two games against the Predators.
After the Sharks held their player introductions prior to their first home game of the season, they took a few minutes to recognize Brent Burns, who was traded to the Hurricanes in July. Burns spent 11 seasons with the Sharks and is the franchise’s leader in most offensive categories for a defenseman.
“It’s a tough game to play. There’s just no way around it,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Friday morning. “When you’ve had a storied career in another place, it’s kind of what you know, and it’s all you know.
“All of a sudden lining up against people you’ve played with for a long, long time, the building and being on the opposite bench, and all these little things that come in, it’s a lot. I think it’s a chance to make memories too, right? There’s one time you get to do this and obviously we hope that we play well for for him.”
“It’s going to be great,” Burns said. “I’ve got a lot of friends that have texted me that are coming. Just stepping on the ice, even though it’s the other gate, there is just a special feeling of the ice and the building.”
