BOSTON — Eat your heart out, Bobby Orr!

William Eklund scored perhaps the goal of the year, beating Andrew Peeke one-on-one, then in flight, batting a rebound over Jeremy Swayman’s shoulder.

Eat your heart out, Bobby Orr! https://t.co/77Tumdrbll

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 13, 2026

This aerial assault gave the San Jose Sharks a 4-0 lead, en route to a 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins.

This was a huge goal for the Sharks and Eklund, his first goal in 20 games, since Jan. 7, and just his second in his last 24.

This win also put the San Jose Sharks back into the last wild card spot in the West.

Notably, Eklund was a game-time decision, playing through a lower-body injury — post-game, he appeared to have an ice pack over his left knee — but he came up with a one goal and one assist performance just when his team needed it. The Sharks were on a three-game losing streak, and they snapped both the Bruins’ 13-game winning streak and San Jose’s eight-game skid in Boston. The Sharks’ last win at TD Garden was in Nov. 2015.

Of course, Eklund’s score was no comparison to what might be Hall of Famer Orr’s signature goal, memorialized outside the Garden with a statue. Orr’s aerial strike won the 1970 Stanley Cup over the St. Louis Blues.

But for Eklund and the Sharks, both who want to hoist their first-ever Cup, this was a 23-year-old winger, playing hurt, and coming up with the closest thing to a clutch playoff performance so far in his career. Eklund has been surging post-Olympic break, despite his goal-less slump, finding chemistry with both rookie center Michael Misa and veteran scorer Tyler Toffoli, and San Jose would love for him to get hot, in this playoff-like cauldron.

Whether the San Jose Sharks make the playoffs or not this season, a performance like this matters: It’s not just about the on the ice, we’re also going to learn about the character of these young Sharks in the coming weeks. We’re going to learn a little bit about who’s essential to winning in the coming years, when San Jose becomes a serious contender. Showing your mettle in Mar. 2026 might matter in Jun. 2031.

No doubt, the Sharks, as a whole, are battling. Helped, frankly, by a weak conference, San Jose has managed to claw their way back into the playoff picture for the first time since Jan 28. But credit too, they’ve overcome a 4-5-3 record since then, and have put themselves in position to be masters of their destiny to finish the regular season.

The Sharks, if they have a better record than the teams chasing them for the rest of this year — chiefly, the Seattle Kraken, Los Angeles Kings, and Nashville Predators — will make the playoffs.

Collin Graf

 

Alex Nedeljkovic

Nedeljkovic, on if there’s more pressure on him when he’s being backed up by an EBUG:

You can definitely think that way. And it does creep in your head a little bit, but you gotta flush it pretty quick. You can’t play tentative. You can’t be cautious and think I can’t have an off-night. Because you’re not now focused on stopping pucks, right? You’re thinking about the what if’s. And obviously, they’re not positive what-if’s. They’re pretty negative what-if’s. So you got to try to figure out a way to flush it pretty quick and not worry about it, and honestly, be in the moment, enjoy it, and try to make [EBUG Kyle Chauvette] feel as comfortable as possible, and make him feel like one of the boys. I thought everybody did that.

William Eklund

Ryan Warsofsky

Warsofsky, on Eklund’s goal: “That’s a goal that you’ll see on highlight reels for a long, long time. That’s one of the nice goals I’ve seen.”

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 13, 2026

No update on Askarov from Warsofsky. Chernyshov has joined #SJSharks in Boston.

No practice tomorrow in Montreal, but we’ll see if the Sharks recall a Barracuda goalie tomorrow

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 13, 2026