Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks top St. Louis Blues in shootout
Tomas Hertl scored in the fourth round of the shootout to help give the San Jose Sharks a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, splitting the two-game series at Enterprise Center.
Sharks goalie Martin Jones made 23 saves in regulation time and overtime, and didn’t allow a goal in the shootout as the Sharks evened their record at 2-2-0.
Ryan Donato, Logan Couture and Kevin Labanc all could not beat Jordan Binnington in the first three rounds of the shootout before Hertl came though, giving the Sharks a critical second point after they had lost their last two games. Binnington finished with 34 saves as the Sharks out shot the Blues 15-4 after the second period.
Defenseman Erik Karlsson didn’t have a point but had his best game of the season, using his legs to help create a handful of Sharks scoring opportunities while also cutting down on some more risky plays.
“Best he’s looked so far this season,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said of Karlsson, who finished with 29 minutes and 52 seconds of ice time. “He looked like he had his legs tonight. He had a lot more jump in his step.”
The Sharks blew a chance to win the game on special teams as they went 0-for-7 on the power play Wednesday, which included two tries with the man-advantage in the third period. The Sharks went 4 for 4 on the penalty kill, taking care of the four minor penalties that Evander Kane took Wednesday.
Still, the Sharks earned a chance to carry some momentum into this weekend’s series with the Minnesota Wild, one of the teams San Jose will likely have to contend with if it hopes to make a run at a playoff spot.
“We knew this trip was going to be a tough trip,” Boughner said. “More than anything, as a coach, you’re trying to sell a certain style of play. We’re talking about structure, details and doing the right things at the right times with the puck.
“It’s a little easier sell when you get a hard fought win.”
Marcus Sorensen scored with 2:03 left in the second period to tie the game 1-1.
Sorensen won a race to the puck in the corner to the left of Binnington and fed it back to the blue line. Mario Ferraro took a pass from Brent Burns and quickly got a shot on goal that was tipped by Matt Nieto and saved by Binnington.
But Sorensen got position on Blues defenseman Torey Krug, dove for the loose puck and knocked it behind Binnington for his first goal of the season.
Brayden Schenn gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at the 4:27 mark of the second period.
Jordan Kyrou skated into the Sharks’ zone with the puck before he was knocked off balance by Burns. With the puck laying there, Schenn won a race and fired it past Jones for his second of the season.
Jones had 20 saves through two periods as the Sharks continued to have some issues in their own end, particularly when it came to clearing the puck, which led to some additional opportunities for St. Louis.
Boughner has been looking for more offense from his third and fourth lines, and began Wednesday with some new looks among his forward group.
Donato started Wednesday’s game on the Sharks’ top line with Logan Couture and Labanc, and Timo Meier moved to a bruising line with Hertl and Kane. John Leonard was on a line with fellow winger Stefan Noesen and center Dylan Gambrell and Patrick Marleau, in his 1,727th game, centered a line with Sorensen and Nieto.
The tweaked lines represented new opportunities for a handful of players. Gambrell was playing in his first game of the season with a chance to impress in a third line center role, and Donato was getting a look inside the top six forward group. He played with Couture and Labanc near the end of Monday’s game, a 5-4 Blues win.
“Those guys are great to play with,” Donato said Tuesday. “(Logan’s) a guy that’s obviously done a lot and been around for a long time and then (Labanc’s) had a lot of success too.
“Obviously we fell short so I’m not that thrilled with the way it went, but I think we were creating chances and doing the things that we needed to do to help win. Hopefully if we get a chance again, we’ll do enough to get a win.”