While the Penguins continued searching for answers amidst a three-game losing skid, the San Jose Sharks found a much-needed spark, snapping their six-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory at SAP Center on Monday, January 27th. Sidney Crosby has been a bright spot for the struggling Penguins, scoring the only goals in their past two games, while Michael Bunting scored the lone goal in the first game of their current three-game losing streak. Mikael Granlund and Macklin Celebrini provided the offensive spark the Sharks needed, finding the back of the net to propel San Jose to victory. The Penguins head to Utah on Wednesday for their last game of the road trip before going back to Pittsburgh to host the Nashville Predators on Saturday. Going to Seattle, the Sharks will take on the Kraken on Thursday.
Penguins Lineup:
Rakell - Crosby - Rust
Bunting - Glass - Beauvillier
O'Connor - Hayes - Tomasino
Imama - Acciari - Nieto
Pettersson - Letang
Grzelcyk - Karlsson
Graves - Shea
Nedeljkovic
Blomqvist
Sharks Lineup:
Zetterlund - Granlund - Smith
Eklund - Celebrini - Toffoli
Kovalenko - Wennberg - Kunin
Goodrow - White - Duehr
Walman - Ceci
Liljegren - Ferraro
Thrun - Thompson
Askarov
Georgiev
Mikael Granlund got things going in the second after a scoreless opening 20 with his 15th goal of the season, giving the Sharks a 1-0 lead, off a Will Smith pass, beating Alex Nedeljkovic glove side on a wrist shot after skating into the left circle. Right off the face-off, Ryan Shea had gotten ahold of the puck and flubbed on a clearing attempt, the puck found its way to Smith, who extended his point streak to five games when he recorded the assist on Granlund's goal with 12:29 on the clock in the middle frame.
Sidney Crosby knotted it up just 24 seconds into the third period, grabbing his 15th of the season and his third in the past five games to get Pittsburgh on the board. A pass by Bryan Rust, who drove the net, had been broken by Cody Ceci, but the puck bounced to Crosby for a five-hole goal at a sharp angle. Back in the Penguins' zone, Sidney received a pass from Matt Grzelcyk, picked it up along the left boards, and drove into the Sharks' zone, passing it off to Rust before it found its way back to Crosby for the Penguins' tally. With 16:19 on the clock, Macklin Celebrini found his 16th of the season to untie the knot, putting San Jose back in front after a clearing attempt by Marcus Pettersson had been intercepted by Tyler Toffoli, who handed it over to Celebrini, who scored from the low slot blocker side. ...Drew O'Connor had a chance to tie it back up 2-2, but Yaroslav Askarov stopped his shorthanded penalty shot. Later into the final frame, it appeared that Michael Bunting scored, however, the Sharks successfully challenged for goaltender interference.
Sidney Crosby on the game/performance, thoughts on playing better defense compared to their last game in Seattle, and the third period: "Yeah, they had some blocked shots, but we still had some good looks. We hit a couple of posts, and I thought we had some great opportunities. It hasn't been going in for us, and you know, one or two go in, it's a different game," - "It's a game of mistakes, and right now, we're making the ones that are hurting us and we're not capitalizing on the ones that other teams make on the offensive side of things. That's how it's going and we got to find a way to change that. ...We pushed. In that situation, something you got to find a way to push, I thought we had it with Bunt's there. We kept pushing after that. Like I said, we haven't been able to find the net as much."
Drew O'Connor on frustration level and the last few games for the Penguins: "It's hard because I think we've had a lot of good looks the last few games and we haven't been necessarily scoring. It can be frustrating when that happens, so we have to find a way to regroup and get the next one. I think the last few games we've done a lot of good things, we haven't had the results, so we have to find ways to make it happen."
Notes:
- Alex Nedeljkovic made a total of 26 saves for Pittsburgh.
- The Penguins have lost seven of their past nine games.
- After missing one game due to a lower-body injury, Bryan Rust made his return to the lineup and picked up an assist in 21:35 of ice time.
- Pens: 20-24-8, SJ: 15-32-6
- Yaroslav Askarov made a total of 29 saves for San Jose.
- The San Jose Sharks have allowed at least six goals in each of their past four games.
- With his assist on the game-opening goal in the second, Will Smith joined Macklin Celebrini as the second Sharks rookie with a five-game point streak. Smith and Celebrini are the first pair of rookie Sharks to each post a five-game streak in the same season since 2014-15; Chris Tierney and Melker Karlsson (5GP). ...Smith has two goals and four assists during his five-game streak.
- Celebrini is the third Shark rookie in team history to score at least four game-winning goals in a season. He joined both Logan Couture (eight in 2010-11) and Niko Dimitrakos (four in 2003-04).
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