Sharks Rally for 6-5 OT Win; McGroarty Scores

 

For two brilliant periods, everything felt right in Pittsburgh. The Penguins, playing their first game since the Tristan Jarry trade, came out with defiant energy, building a seemingly insurmountable 5-1 lead over the Sharks. It was a showcase of offense, with Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, Anthony Mantha, and Kevin Hayes all finding the net, but the real highlight was Rutger McGroarty scoring his first NHL goal just days after his call-up; a moment that should have been the exclamation point on a badly needed win. Instead, that four-goal margin completely disintegrated as the Sharks tallied four unanswered goals in the final frame. Arturs Silovs, who was solid in his debut early on, could only watch as the Sharks exploded, fueled by Tyler Toffoli and John Klingberg's two-goal nights. That barrage forced overtime, where San Jose completed the stunning 6-5 steal, leaving the Penguins with a bitter taste and extending their brutal losing streak to four games.

San Jose Sharks Lineup:

Kurashev - Celebrini - Smith

Graf - Wennberg - Toffoli

Skinner - Dellandrea - Eklund

Goodrow - Gaudette - Reaves

Orlov - Klingberg

Ferraro - Leddy

Dickinson - Iorio

Askarov

Nedeljkovic

Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:

Rakell - Crosby - Rust

McGroarty - Kindel - Brazeau

Koivunen - Novak - Mantha

Dewar - Hayes - Acciari

Wotherspoon - Karlsson

Shea - Letang

Graves - Clifton

Silovs

Murashov

Opening the scoring with 9:33 on the clock in the first period, Tyler Toffoli fired from the point to put San Jose ahead 1-0 off a pass from Sam Dickinson, who sent the puck over to Toffoli from the right side along the blue line. Sidney Crosby answered not long after the Sharks tally when he found the back of the net to tie it 1-1 eight seconds into the power play on a wrister in off the rebound of Anthony Mantha's shot at 7:19. It was Crosby's 19th goal of the season.

Rutger McGroarty broke the tie 2-1 early in the second period, only 19 seconds in, with a stunning wrist shot off a pass from Ben Kindel. After McGroarty got a hold of the puck off the face-off, carrying it with him until he got to the back wall and handed it over, where Kris Letang picked it up and passed it off to Kindel for McGroarty to strike from the high slot for his first point in six games this season since being called up. At 10:18, Kevin Hayes made it 3-1 for Pittsburgh, tapping in a pass from Noel Acciari, who took a pass from Connor Dewar after Ryan Shea was denied by Yaroslav Askarov. Bryan Rust extended the lead 4-1 with just seconds left in the middle frame when he was set up by Crosby to score a one-timer on a power play for his 10th goal of the season.

Anthony Mantha put in his 10th goal of the season to give the Penguins a 5-1 lead with a power-play goal at 14:35 of the third, putting in Erik Karlsson's shot behind Askarov. The Sharks started battling when John Klingberg scored on a wrist shot from the high slot on a 5-on-3 power play to cut it to 5-2 before William Eklund made it 5-3 with his eighth of the season with 5:41 on the clock. Eklund had chipped in a loose puck, Arturs Silovs down in the crease from making a dive save six seconds earlier on Alexander Wennberg. Macklin Celebrini cut it to 5-4 at 2:28 of the third, putting in his 16th goal of the season before Toffoli came in with his second goal of the game to tie it 5-5 with just 1:38 to go in regulation with a wrist shot from above the crease. Both Celebrini and Toffoli's goals came with Askarov pulled for an extra attacker.

At 2:57 of overtime, Klingberg was set up by Celebrini for a one-timer from the bottom of the left face-off circle for the 6-5 final.

Sidney Crosby on the loss and getting better: "We did everything but get two points. That's the unfortunate part of it, but we got a game tomorrow, we gotta move by it." - "We've got to find a way to be consistent... I think that we've done a lot of good things in the first 30 games. So, you know, we've got to find ways to close out games."

Notes:

- Arturs Silovs made a total of 26 saves for Pittsburgh.

- Anthony Mantha and Bryan Rust had a two-point game, each of them recording one goal and two assists. Sidney Crosby picked up a goal and an assist.

- With his two-point night, Crosby is just three points away from passing Mario Lemieux to become the Penguins' all-time points leader.

- This was Ryan Shea's 100th NHL career game.

- The Penguins are 14-8-8, and are 0-1-3 in their past four games.

- Yaroslav Askarov made a total of 38 saves for San Jose.

- Tyler Toffoli recorded two goals and two assists, Macklin Celebrini had a goal and a pair of assists, William Eklund had a goal and an assist, and Alex Wennberg picked up three assists.

- This was Dmitry Orlov's 900th NHL career game.

- The Sharks are 16-14-3, and have won three of four.

- This was San Jose's first four-goal, third-period comeback win in team history. It's also the fifth latest in NHL history.

- Philipp Kurashev and Will Smith both left the game with an injury. Kurashev slid into the end boards midway through the second, sustaining an upper-body injury. Smith took a hit from Parker Wotherspoon along the boards and exited at 3:30 of the third period.