Celebrini leads third period surge as Sharks bury Los Angeles Kings
SAN JOSE – Rookie centerman Macklin Celebrini led the San Jose Sharks to its most lopsided win of the season on Monday.
Celebrini scored two of the Sharks’ five third-period goals and added an assist in a 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings before an announced crowd of 10,713 at SAP Center.
The Sharks scored three times in the opening 3:43 of the third period. Celebrini’s goals came at the 1:03 mark, which broke a 2-2 tie, and at the 3:43 mark as his one-timer on a 5-on-3 power play gave the Sharks a 5-2 lead.
Timothy Liljegren, Alexander Wennberg and Luke Kunin also scored in the third period for the Sharks, who set a new season high for goals in a single game. Nico Sturm and Fabian Zetterlund also scored as the Sharks snapped a three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in eight games (2-3-3).
Rookie goalie Yaroslav Askarov, in his first career start at SAP Center, made 22 saves for his first win in a Sharks uniform.
Brandt Clarke and Anze Kopitar both scored second-period goals for the Kings, with Kopitar’s goal at the 8:58 mark giving Los Angeles a 2-1 lead.
The Sharks tied the game later in the second. Zetterlund, on a rush, took a pass from William Eklund in the Kings’ zone and looped around the net. He then one-armed a pass out front, with the puck going off Los Angeles defenseman Mikey Anderson and past goalie David Rittich for his ninth of the season.
The Sharks continue their homestand on Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators.
The Sharks were without leading scorer Mikael Granlund for the first time this season.
Granlund had 21:42 in ice time in the Sharks’ 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, then was given a maintenance day on Sunday. Warsofsky said Monday morning that he had a few players “nicked up” and that there would be some game-time decisions.
Granlund, who plays in all situations, has 24 points in 23 games this season and leads all of the team’s forwards in average time on ice (21:15). It’s unclear whether he’ll have to miss any more time with the injury.
Before Monday’s game, the Sharks activated center Sturm off injured reserve and assigned defenseman Jack Thompson to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.
The transactions left the Sharks with 14 forwards, six defensemen, and three goalies: Mackenzie Blackwood, Vitek Vanecek, and Askarov, who started against the Kings as the Sharks played the second game of a four-game homestand that ends later this week.
Why the Sharks decided to keep three goalies on their roster for the time being was not immediately clear. But it gave Askarov a chance to start his first game in San Jose after he made his Sharks debut in St. Louis on Thursday. Askarov, acquired in a major trade from the Nashville Predators in August, made 29 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Blues.
Askarov allowed a goal to Blues forward Nathan Walker on the first shot he faced 11 seconds into the game. He went behind his net to play the puck but sent it right to Radek Faksa, who found Walker open in front of the net for a tap-in goal with Askarov out of position.
Askarov, though. responded with 14 straight saves to finish the period and had nine saves in the third period to help send the game into overtime.
“You can tell he’s quick, he can play the puck,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Askarov Monday morning. “He makes that one mistake, but the way he responds from it, the mental toughness that he shows to keep pushing forward and make some big saves in St. Louis. You can see the bright future that he has, his quickness.
“I think everyone’s really happy where he is in his development here. And we’ll see how the future unfolds.”