{"id":250165,"date":"2026-04-03T14:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250165\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:44:08","slug":"san-jose-sharks-collin-graf-start-fast-beat-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250165\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks, Collin Graf start fast, beat Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 Zack Ostapchuk and Collin Graf both scored first-period goals, and William Eklund added one in the second as the San Jose Sharks<\/a> started fast and earned a 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> on Thursday at SAP Center.<\/p>\n

Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic<\/a> made 18 saves, including eight in the third period, as the Sharks (36-31-7) won their fourth straight game and, via points percentage, moved into the Western Conference\u2019s second wild card spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adam Gaudette added an empty net goal with 56.9 seconds left in the third period for the Sharks, who improved to 3-0-0 on this critical six-game homestand.<\/p>\n

San Jose, Los Angeles, and Nashville now all have 79 points after the Kings lost 5-4 in a shootout to the Predators late Thursday night. The Sharks, having played one fewer game, have a .534 points percentage, compared to .527 for the Kings and Predators.<\/p>\n

The Sharks next play the Predators on Saturday in another massive game.<\/p>\n

The Sharks were coming off an emotional 4-3 comeback win over the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> on Wednesday. Macklin Celebrini scored with 1:39 left in the third period to tie the game 3-3, then assisted on Alex Wennberg\u2019s go-ahead goal with 31 seconds remaining to complete a four-point game.<\/p>\n

Celebrini did not have a point against the Leafs, marking only the second time in 20 games this season that the Sharks have won when their leading scorer hasn\u2019t recorded a point.<\/p>\n

The other time it happened was on Jan. 19, when Michael Misa and Igor Chernyshov each had two assists in a 4-1 home victory over the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we talked about, right? We need guys to contribute in a lot of different areas,\u201d Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cThe more guys we get going, the more guys contributing, is going to help our group in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks, who were 4-7-2 in the second half of back-to-back games before Thursday, built a 2-0 lead after the first period.<\/p>\n

Ostapchuk scored his fourth goal of the season at the 3:27 mark on San Jose\u2019s first shot of the game, as he streaked in on the right wing and beat Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz with a shot that appeared to change direction.<\/p>\n

Then, after a Sharks forecheck resulted in a Leafs turnover, Graf took a pass from Misa and beat Stolarz for his 20th goal of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. If you asked me at the start of the year, I probably wouldn\u2019t have said I would have gotten there. It\u2019s a nice milestone to get,\u201d Graf said. \u201cIt\u2019s an even bigger two points. We\u2019re all working toward playoffs here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eklund\u2019s goal snapped a 10-game goal drought, as his shot from near the slot was deflected wide. The puck coming off the end boards, though, got caught in Stolarz\u2019s equipment as he slid backward, and crossed the goal line for Eklund\u2019s 13th goal of the season.<\/p>\n

Leafs center John Tavares scored a power play goal at the 6:43 mark of the second period to cut the Sharks\u2019 lead to 3-1, and Toronto was the more active team for other large parts of the game<\/p>\n

Coming off Wednesday\u2019s comeback win, Warsofsky said he addressed the possibility of an emotional letdown Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have an emotional win, the natural human reaction is to kind of come off it a little bit,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure what happened last night doesn\u2019t affect our game today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t just ride a high again. We\u2019ve got to move on. It\u2019s a big two points that we got, but yesterday doesn\u2019t mean anything if we don\u2019t get two tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Saturday, the Sharks close the homestand with games against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday and the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 Zack Ostapchuk and Collin Graf both scored first-period goals, and William Eklund added one in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3524,111405,9900,88,90,89,98,2992],"class_list":{"0":"post-250165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-collin-graf","9":"tag-nhl-playoff-race","10":"tag-nhl-playoffs","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-headlines","13":"tag-san-jose-news","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250165","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=250165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}