Sharks skate past Red Wings with barrage of third-period goals

Curtis Pashelka, Bay Area News Group on Jan 14, 2025

Published in Hockey

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William Eklund, Mikael Granlund, Tyler Toffoli and Mario Ferraro all scored third-period goals to help lead the San Jose Sharks to a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday to open a five-game road trip.

Eklund and linemate Macklin Celebrini also had two assists each, and goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves for just his second win in a Sharks uniform as San Jose snapped a three-game losing streak.

The six goals the Sharks scored were the most in any one game since Nov. 29 when they beat the Seattle Kraken, 8-5, at SAP Center.

The Sharks continue their road trip on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets,

Georgiev snapped a personal six-game losing streak but has played better of late, stopping 62 of 67 shots in games last week against the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Hockey Club.

Despite being outshot 12-6 in the first period, the Sharks had a 2-0 lead.

Rutta’s second goal of the season came after Alexander Wennberg won a battle behind the Red Wings’ net and sent the puck in front to Will Smith, whose quick shot was stopped by goalie Ville Husso. The rebound came to Rutta, whose blast from inside the blue line beat Husso for his first goal since Dec. 2.

The Sharks gave up nine of the next 10 shots as they had trouble breaking of their own zone and also had to kill a holding penalty to Ferraro. But at the end of that kill, defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic sent a puck ahead to Eklund, who carried it through the neutral zone before he sent a nifty pass to Nico Sturm, who skated in and put a move on Husso before scoring his fifth of the season.

Vladimir Tarasenko got one of those goals back for the Red Wings at the 1:26 mark of the second period. Inside the Sharks’ zone, Wings forward Jonatan Berggren sent a pass across the ice that was retrieved by defenseman Simon Edvinsson. Georgiev stopped his shot from a sharp angle, but Tarasenko was near the net and fired a shot that beat Georgiev for his fifth goal of the season and first since Dec. 1.

The game marked Jake Walman’s return to Detroit, where he spent two-plus seasons before he and a 2024 second-round draft pick were surprisingly traded to the Sharks for future considerations.

“It’ll be nice to be in a familiar place, and a lot of good memories will probably be flowing,” Walman said Monday. “I’m sure it’ll be a happy time and a lot of smiles for me, seeing guys I know, seeing people from the city that I know.”

The trade had to feel like pennies from heaven for the Sharks, as Walman came into Tuesday leading the team’s skaters in average time on ice (22:49) and all defensemen with 26 points in 32 games.

Walman, 28, spent the first 57 games of his NHL career with the St. Louis Blues before he was traded to Detroit in March 2022. In 145 games with the Red Wings, Walman had 43 points in 145 games but never had an opportunity in Detroit like the one he’s received in San Jose.

Walman downplayed the emotional aspect of his return after Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman basically jettisoned him for nothing. His coach, though, said it was human nature for any athlete to want to do well after being cast aside.

“There’s emotion and feelings that go into playing your former team,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Living here, growing up here, whatever it might be, you have to live through those feelings and mask them as best as you can, but you can’t cover up everything. So I think the biggest thing for him is keeping his game simple, getting his legs into it.”

Lineup changes

Wennberg returned to the Sharks’ lineup Tuesday after missing Saturday’s game due to illness. Wennberg now has five assists in his last 12 games. With Wennberg returning, Carl Grundstrom came out of the lineup. Vlasic also re-entered the lineup and played his 1,299th career NHL game after he was a healthy scratch for the last three games. He replaced Henry Thrun.

Wings on fire

Since former Sharks head coach Todd McLellan took over as Detroit’s bench boss on Dec. 26, the Red Wings, before Tuesday, were 7-1-0 and two points out of a playoff spot. A major reason for the Wings’ success has been their power play, which is 14 for 28 during the team’s streak.

The Sharks killed both of the penalties they took against Detroit.

“I just notice how connected they are,” Warsofsky said of Detroit’s power play. “They read off each other extremely well. They’re dangerous off the rush; they’re dangerous off of faceoffs.”