SAN JOSE \u2013 Between the extensive upcoming travel and the quality of the opposition, the next three-plus weeks could be the most challenging of the San Jose Sharks\u2019 season.<\/p>\n
The demanding schedule might also be a measure of whether the Sharks are truly a playoff team.<\/p>\n
The stretch of 12 games in 25 days got off to an impressive start Saturday as the Sharks erased a two-goal third-period deficit before Tyler Toffoli scored at the 1:58 mark of overtime to lift San Jose to a thrilling 5-4 comeback win over the Dallas Stars before a sellout crowd of 17,435 at SAP Center.<\/p>\n
Trailing 4-2 after Mikko Rantanen\u2019s 18th goal of the season at the 7:53 mark of the third period, Toffoli and Adam Gaudette scored 5:33 apart to tie the game, with Gaudette\u2019s goal, his 10th of the season, making it 4-4 with 4:59 left in regulation time.<\/p>\n
On a Sharks power play in overtime, Toffoli took a pass from William Eklund and one-timed a shot past Stars goalie Casey DeSmith for his 13th goal of the season.<\/p>\n
The first three Sharks goals came on the power play, with Macklin Celebrini assisting on goals by Alexander Wennberg and Toffoli to extend his point streak to 13 games. Toffoli\u2019s goal came with 10:32 left in regulation time and cut the Stars\u2019 lead to one.<\/p>\n
Celebrini also assisted on Toffoli\u2019s overtime goal, giving him 70 points on the season.<\/p>\n
Jeff Skinner also scored a power play goal, and Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 16 saves for the Sharks, who host the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday in the second half of the difficult back-to-back.<\/p>\n
After this weekend, the Sharks begin a tough four-game road trip with games against Washington, Detroit, Florida, and Tampa Bay \u2014 all teams in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.<\/p>\n
ROSTER UPDATES<\/p>\n
Warsofsky reiterated before Saturday\u2019s game that defenseman John Klingberg and rookie forward Michael Misa are options to play in Sunday\u2019s game against the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
Klingberg (lower body) hasn\u2019t played since he was injured in the Sharks\u2019 Dec. 31 game against the Minnesota Wild. Misa rejoined the Sharks earlier this week after helping Canada win a Bronze Medal at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a plan. We know we need to get (Misa) to play, and he needs to play games and get going here,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t see him sitting too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Misa practiced with the Sharks on Friday and was on the wing and at center during line rushes, raising the possibility that he could play the wing when he returns to the lineup. \u201cI think he looked good in his first practice,\u201d Warsofsky said.<\/p>\n
SMITH UPDATE<\/p>\n
Sharks forward Will Smith seemingly took another step in his recovery from an upper body injury Saturday morning as he skated with a group of other players in a regular teal jersey. Smith was in a non-contact orange jersey for Friday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
Other players who skated Saturday morning were Klingberg, Misa, and defensemen Vincent Desharnais and Shakir Mukhamadullin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Between the extensive upcoming travel and the quality of the opposition, the next three-plus weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[404,88,90,89,98,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-128501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-san-jose","10":"tag-san-jose-headlines","11":"tag-san-jose-news","12":"tag-san-jose-sharks","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}