SAN JOSE — Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov got his blocker on a shootout attempt by Los Angeles Kings forward Corey Perry inside a raucous SAP Center, took two or three strides out of his crease, and pumped his fist just before being mobbed by his teammates.
The good times — and the noise — have returned to the Shark Tank of late, and Askarov, San Jose’s promising rookie goalie, is a significant reason why.
Askarov’s 31-save performance on Thursday helped the Sharks earn a 4-3 shootout win over the Kings and improve to 6-0-1 at home since late last month. Askarov also stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout and 11 saves on four unsuccessful Kings power plays.
San Jose’s last regulation-time defeat at home came on Oct. 28 when Askarov stopped just 10 of 14 shots in a 4-3 loss to the Kings. Since then, though, home or away, Askarov has been one of the NHL’s best goalies, going 6-1-0 with a sparkling .952 save percentage, including a .942 mark at home.
“Awesome, unbelievable, clutch,” Sharks center Ty Dellandrea said of Askarov. “He wants the big moments. He wants a lot of saves. He could be the first star every night, it seems. He’s been playing great, winning us games, keeping us in games. We’ve got to tighten it up a bit and not rely on him.”
Thursday’s atmosphere was reminiscent of the glory days of the Sharks-Kings rivalry, as the 16,387 announced fans in attendance — including honored guest and recent Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Joe Thornton — witnessed a physical back-and-forth game.
“It was great, eh?” Dellandrea said. “The Tank was loud. It was fun to play in. You hear the chants during play, during whistles. It’s a great spot to be in when it’s like that.”
“It’s awesome,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We hear the ‘Beat L.A.’ chants, and we get juice from it, and our guys feed off it.
“It was a great building tonight, and we want to keep winning and putting a good product on the ice so they keep coming back and hopefully continue to add more fans and make this place an extremely tough place for our opponents to play in.”
Going into Saturday’s home game against the Ottawa Senators, the Sharks are 6-3-3 at SAP Center, and are already halfway to last year’s win total on home ice (12-27-2).
“I wasn’t here when the Shark Tank was alive and well, but I’ve heard a lot about it, and we want to make it like that very, very soon,” Warsofsky said.
Dellandrea, Philipp Kurashev, and Adam Gaudette all scored Thursday, and Collin Graf added two assists, helping the Sharks secure their sixth win in their last eight games, moving to within one point of a playoff spot going into Friday’s games.
The Sharks could have sagged after allowing a game-tying goal to Adrian Kempe with 58.3 seconds left in regulation time. But they were probably the better team in overtime, and once the shootout began, they might have felt some peace with the way Askarov has been playing of late.
“I haven’t seen this team have any mental weakness,” Warsofsky said. “We’re excited to come to the rink every day. They take the coaching, the constructive criticism, and they want to get better, individually and collectively. There’s a real care to win, which we haven’t had in a long time. And you can see it.”
“We’re finding a rhythm. And I don’t think it’s just at home,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “We’re just finding our game altogether.”
Anze Kopitar, in his last regular-season game in San Jose after a 20-year NHL career, scored on a breakaway on Askarov 1:47 into the second period to tie the game 2-2.
Kurashev, though, scored a go-ahead goal late in the second period.
Setting up near the slot, Kurashev created some space for himself, took a pass from Will Smith, and beat Kings goalie Anton Forsberg five-hole for his sixth goal of the season.
At the 11:46 mark of the second period, a Joel Armia goal was taken off the board, as, after a Sharks challenge, it was determined Kings forward Kevin Fiala had preceded the puck into the offensive zone.
Macklin Celebrini recorded his third career NHL hat trick in the Sharks’ win over Utah. Still, the Sharks did not like how they played, especially 5-on-5, as their lack of connectivity defensively allowed the Mammoth to create almost twice as many high-danger chances as they did, per Natural Stat Trick.
Thursday, the Sharks’ recently formed third line of Graf, Gaudette, and Dellandrea helped give the Sharks a 2-1 lead after the first period.
Gaudette scored his fourth of the season at the 2:33 mark off assists from Dellandrea and Graf.
Then, after Joel Armia scored a shorthanded goal off a Celebrini turnover at the 16:04 mark, Dellandrea gave the Sharks back the lead as a Graf pass to the front of the net went off his skate and past Forsberg for his second of the season.