Offense fuels Sharks’ resurgence, but more concerns lay directly ahead

The San Jose Sharks returned home early Monday morning after an 11-day road trip with as much confidence in themselves as they’ve had all season.

Consider it a byproduct of beating three Eastern Conference teams that are in the mix for a playoff spot, and almost knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champions.

The Sharks nearly capped off what had already been a positive road trip with another stirring victory Sunday, scoring twice in the final 3:45 of the third period to send their game with the Vegas Golden Knights into overtime.

But after a scoreless extra session, Kevin Labanc and Mikael Granlund could not capitalize on their shootout attempts, and Jonathan Marchessault and Jack Eichel finished theirs as the Golden Knights handed the Sharks a 5-4 loss at T-Mobile Arena.

Still, after losing their first 10 road games without picking up so much as a point, the Sharks went 3-1-1 to finish the trip, which included dramatic comeback wins over the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings.

“We were changing (our season) as the last three weeks were going on,” Sharks coach David Quinn said Sunday night, “but I thought we took it to another level during this trip.”

On the six-game road trip that began Nov. 30, the Sharks averaged 4.33 goals per game, second most in the NHL in that time despite starting with a 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins.

San Jose (8-17-3) now has points in seven of its last nine games (5-2-2).

“I don’t think there’s any secret recipe,” said Mike Hoffman, whose second goal Sunday tied the game 4-4 with 38.6 seconds left. “We’re moving the puck around and trying to get pucks through. They’re not always going to be cute, but it seems like when you’re hot, things go your way.”

The schedule does not ease up for the Sharks, as their next six games before the Christmas break are against Western Conference teams that entered the week in a playoff spot, starting with Tuesday’s home game against the Winnipeg Jets.

The Sharks might have to play that game without wingers William Eklund and Anthony Duclair, who were both injured at different times Sunday.

Eklund took part in pregame warmups but was declared out with a lower-body injury just before the 7 p.m. start. Then shortly after the opening faceoff of the second period, Duclair was hit in the jaw by the left shoulder of Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar.

The Sharks also inserted defenseman Henry Thrun into the lineup, as the team announced just before warmups began that Marc-Edouard Vlasic would miss the game due to personal reasons.

Quinn after the game did not have an update on Duclair and said he didn’t know when Vlasic would be able to return to the Sharks. Quinn added that he was hoping Eklund, third on the Sharks with 13 points, would only be out a short while.

“Anytime you lose a couple of guys, other players are going to have to kind of step up and rise to the challenge and get more ice time,” Hoffman said. “I thought the forward group did a good job.”

Of the 26 goals the Sharks scored on the trip, Mikael Granlund scored or assisted on 11 of them, with Tomas Hertl adding five goals and three assists. Fourteen players had at least three points on the trip.

This is from a team that scored just 12 goals in their first 11 games.

“I think our confidence is high. But I also think it’s just us knowing what our identity is and how we need to play to be successful,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “Confidence helps any individual, any team. We’re starting to see that, we’re starting to score more goals and it’s showing.

“I think it’s more that we’re figuring out really what makes us successful and we’re sticking to it.”

The next objective for the Sharks is to cut down on the goals against. While they scored 26 goals on the trip, they allowed 25. Goalie Kaapo Kahkonen is playing some of his best hockey as a Shark right now but allowed four goals on 27 shots against the reigning Cup champion Golden Knights.

The Sharks’ penalty kill was 3-for-4 on Sunday, and while parts of it have improved, it has still given up a power-play goal in five of the last six games.

“We’ve created a blueprint of how we’re going to have success here over the last month,” Quinn said. “We’ve been doing it, but not as consistently as we have over the last two games, and our guys pretty much understand how we’re going to have success. I thought we defended pretty well. Not a lot of big-time chances.

“I thought (Vegas) had five minutes in the third where they kind of hemmed us in a little bit, but a month ago that’s 25 minutes of hemmed-in hockey that we were trying to fight through.”