MONTREAL — Was this a “big growth” game for the San Jose Sharks?

That’s how head coach Ryan Warsofsky saw it.

Up 3-2 going into the third period, in a raucous Bell Centre that Macklin Celebrini called “probably the hockey mecca of the world”, the young Sharks played mature hockey to close out the high-flying Canadiens.

“It’s probably the hockey mecca of the world, so it was fun to win here tonight.”

Macklin Celebrini chats with @SNCaroline following a three-point night 🙌 pic.twitter.com/zbjpTCxPL4

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 15, 2026

They actually outshot the Habs, 8-7, in the final frame.

They didn’t chase bad offense: Will Smith, for example, about 40 seconds into the final frame, dumped it in instead of going on an offensive foray in a well-defended zone.

“We kept short shifts, which it goes a long way,” Vincent Desharnais said. “We stay fresh.”

Puck management was not perfect, but decent.

“I don’t think we messed around with the puck too much,” Mario Ferraro said. “It was pretty straightforward, hard off the glass, if we had to.”

They were patient with the puck.

Early in third, Kiefer Sherwood was standing with the puck on his own blueline, and instead of playing fast and going for the risky stretch pass up the ice, waited a beat, and surprised the Habs with an east-west pass to weakside trailer Shakir Mukhamadullin. Mukhamadullin carried the puck blueline to blueline, zero opposition, and fired a shot on Jakub Dobes that forced an OZ faceoff.

That’s winning hockey, winning territory.

Warsofsky added: “We did some things that we’ve really wanted to dial in, and we did a really good job of that. Through the rush, our defensive responsibilities coming out of the offensive zone.”

There was offense, too, led by Sherwood, who had three of San Jose’s eight shots in the third, including a couple in-tight scoring chances.

And of course, your goalie’s got to come up with some stops and have a little luck (Oliver Kapanen post).

“Ned made some amazing saves,” Celebrini said of Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 25-of-27 shots.

Desharnais acknowledged that the Sharks haven’t always held a lead with this much maturity: “In the past, we’ve been on our heels a little bit more, and I think the last few games where we have the lead, we don’t just back up.”

“For the most part,” Celebrini said. “I thought we played the right way.”

“Saturday night in Montreal,” Warsofsky said. “What better place would you rather be?”

It bodes well for the San Jose Sharks’ playoff hopes — they’ve got the last wild card spot in the West again tonight — that they could play “the right way” in the third period and squeeze the life out of a high-powered opponent in a hostile environment.

It’s promising that they’re playing some of their best hockey deep into March, the post-season in sight next month.

Assistant Equipment Manager, Tim LeRoy, celebrated his 2,500th pro game tonight with a win and the Shark tooth necklace.

Congrats, Timmy! 👏 pic.twitter.com/x8iXSpCwaz

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) March 15, 2026

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky pointed out Ferraro and hometown kid Desharnais as being particularly strong on defense tonight

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 15, 2026

Chernyshov will travel with team to Ottawa, good sign

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 15, 2026

Macklin Celebrini

Vincent Desharnais

Mario Ferraro

Winning the game for Chernyshov seemed to rally #SJSharks.

Ferraro: “Really big to get the win, especially for Igor there.”

Warsofsky: “You see a guy go down, you got to play for him. And I thought our guys did a really good job of, we had 11 forwards for the whole game, and…

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 15, 2026

Mike Matheson

Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson after the game when asked about his first-period hit on the Sharks’ Igor Chernyshov that knocked him out #Habs: pic.twitter.com/mAYpNBHoRK

— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) March 15, 2026