Sharks start slow as ugly streak against Golden Knights continues

SAN JOSE – The Vegas Golden Knights have dominated the Sharks in recent years. That’s not surprising, considering San Jose is going on six seasons without a playoff appearance, and the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023 and are in relentless pursuit of another.

Still, it remains a somewhat shocking statistic that the Sharks have never beaten the Golden Knights on home ice in regulation time in eight years.

The Sharks battled Tuesday but will have to wait until next season to end that ignominious streak. They fell behind by two goals to the Golden Knights on two occasions and never fully recovered in a 4-2 loss before an announced crowd of 10,802 at SAP Center.

The Sharks allowed even strength first period goals to Mark Stone and Zach Whitecloud and a third period power play goal to Victor Olofsson as their all-time home record against the Golden Knights fell to 3-12-2. All three of those wins came in overtime.

The Sharks, outshot by a wide margin, managed power play goals from William Eklund and Timothy Liljegren as they lost for the ninth time in 11 games (2-8-1).

Liljegren’s goal came at the 10:41 mark of third period, but the Sharks could not find the equalizdr as they closed a six-game homestand with a 2-4-0 record.

Goalie Alexandar Georgiev, making his first start since New Year’s Eve, made 38 saves in what became his fifth straight loss. Still, it was arguably his steadiest performance in a Sharks uniform, as he came into Tuesday with a 1-4-0 record and an .869 save percentage.

The Sharks created some good looks in the first period, including a breakaway chance by Barclay Goodrow, but still trailed by two goals in the early going.

Mark Stone scored at the 8:39 mark for a 1-0 Vegas lead. After a long pass from defenseman Shea Theodore to the Sharks’ blue line, Stone chipped the puck past defenseman Cody Ceci and went in alone on Georgiev before scoring his 11th goal of the season.

Whitecloud then scored his third of the season at the 10:08 mark, a sequence started by a Sharks giveaway in their own end as Shakir Mukhamadullin had the puck taken off his stick from his blind side.

The Sharks’ two power play goals Tuesday marked the first time they’ve scored twice with the man advantage since a Nov. 25 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

As impressive as the Sharks’ wins were over the Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils last week, they were still going to face a massive challenge in their game against the Golden Knights.

While the Lightning and Devils had both been struggling by the time they arrived in San Jose, the Golden Knights came into Tuesday having one eight of their last nine games to vault into first place in the NHL’s overall standings. Vegas hasn’t lost two games in a row since mid-November.

Since then, the Golden Knights went 16-3-1, and in those 20 games, six players have five goals or more, and three players have eight or more assists. It’s a balanced attack that would appear to have the Golden Knights primed to win their second Stanley Cup in three years.

“Vegas is one of the best teams at driving the middle of the ice,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Their middle lane drive is the best I’ve seen, and we got to make sure we don’t let them get odd man rushes. How do we do that? We can’t turn over pucks at our blue line tonight.”