The San Jose Sharks hosted the Nashville Predators in a game with massive playoff implications on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky deemed it \u201cthe most important game of the season,\u201d and to be frank, that may be underselling it. It was likely the most important game in over half of a decade.<\/p>\n
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The Predators were controlling the run of play early on, getting some quality shots on Yaroslav Askarov.<\/p>\n
Adam Gaudette took the first penalty of the night when he was called for hooking at 6:50 of the first period. The high-powered Nashville power play took advantage of their first power play, as Filip Forsberg was able to beat Askarov to make it 1-0. Forsberg then scored his second of the night off a rebound less than a minute and a half later.<\/p>\n
At 11:49, Nashville captain Roman Josi went to the box for hooking Will Smith. The Sharks were unable to score on the man advantage, but Sam Dickinson made some smart plays at the blue line to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Moments after Josi\u2019s penalty expired, Brady Skjei went to the box for hauling down Gaudette. 49 seconds into the man advantage, the power play was nullified due to an interference penalty on Dmitry Orlov.<\/p>\n
After Skjei was released from the penalty box, Steven Stamkos scored on the Predators\u2019 abbreviated power play to make it a 3-0 hockey game.<\/p>\n
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The Sharks had a very strong possession a few minutes into the second period, keeping the Predators trapped in their own zone and unable to make a line change. Unfortunately for the Sharks, an easy glove save for Juuse Saros allowed the Predators to get fresh legs on the ice.<\/p>\n
Askarov made a big glove save with 11:33 remaining in the second to keep his team\u2019s hopes alive, as a four-goal deficit would almost certainly put the game out of reach.<\/p>\n
The amount of scrums increased exponentially around the halfway point of the game, with Askarov even going after Zachary L\u2019Heureux at one point.<\/p>\n
Skjei went back to the box with 5:54 remaining in the middle frame, giving the Sharks a lifeline. That lifeline would once again be nullified by a penalty; this time, Will Smith went to the box for slashing Josi behind the Nashville net.<\/p>\n
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Nick Leddy scored his first goal as a Shark to bring them within two with 4:11 remaining in the period. Stamkos and William Eklund had a bit of a wrestling match with a minute remaining in the period, causing the two to get coincidental minor penalties. Celebrini scored 42 seconds after the penalties, making it a one-goal game with just over 20 minutes left to play.<\/p>\n
Alex Wennberg set a new career-high in goals in the third period, when he made a highlight reel move to beat Saros and tie the game up at three goals apiece.<\/p>\n
The Predators started fighting back after the Sharks\u2019 game-tying goal, forcing a few long shifts for the Sharks, but they were unable to break the deadlock for quite a while. Eventually, the Predators would regain the lead, though, as Ryan O\u2019Reilly scored to make it 4-3 with 11:32 remaining in the third period.<\/p>\n
Roman Josi was called for delay of game with just 3:21 remaining in regulation. Tyson Jost had two quick chances to score a shorthanded goal on a breakaway, but both shots were denied by Askarov. Moments later, the Predators got their shorthanded goal though as Erik Haula beat Askarov to make it 5-3 and put the game out of reach for the Sharks.<\/p>\n
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Jost added an empty-net goal with 1:15 remaining to make it 6-3.<\/p>\n
Tonight’s game was undoubtedly a must-win for the Sharks, despite a valiant effort, they weren’t able to get it done. As of now, the Sharks sit two points out of a playoff spot and their odds of a trip to the postseason have dropped tremendously. The Sharks and Predators will meet one more time this season, in Nashville. It’ll be imperative that the Sharks get their two points back in that game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks hosted the Nashville Predators in a game with massive playoff implications on Saturday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[4214,4216,14904,44472,5400,112223,13518,14903,12753,4352,4637,106552,1037,88,90,89,98,18695,106550,13190,14905,3578,2105,3516],"class_list":{"0":"post-252843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-adam-gaudette","9":"tag-alex-wennberg","10":"tag-brady-skjei","11":"tag-celebrini","12":"tag-dmitry-orlov","13":"tag-erik-haula","14":"tag-filip-forsberg","15":"tag-juuse-saros","16":"tag-nashville-predators","17":"tag-nick-leddy","18":"tag-power-play","19":"tag-roman-josi","20":"tag-sam-dickinson","21":"tag-san-jose","22":"tag-san-jose-headlines","23":"tag-san-jose-news","24":"tag-san-jose-sharks","25":"tag-steven-stamkos","26":"tag-the-predators","27":"tag-the-sharks","28":"tag-tyson-jost","29":"tag-will-smith","30":"tag-william-eklund","31":"tag-yaroslav-askarov"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252843","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=252843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}