Sharks takeaways: Another teenager shows he’s ready for the spotlight

SAN JOSE – Rookie center Michael Misa had one thought in 3-on-3 overtime after he came out of the San Jose Sharks’ zone and took a drop pass from teammate William Eklund.

“Definitely attack,” Misa said.

Misa took the pass from Eklund, skated into the offensive zone, split two forwards, fought off a check from defenseman Haydn Fleury and beat goalie Connor Hellebuyck, the reigning league MVP, giving the Sharks a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.

Will Smith also scored, and goalie Alex Nedeljovic finished with 27 saves as the Sharks swept a pair of weekend matinees at SAP Center, both before enthusiastic sellout crowds of 17,435. The Sharks also beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 on Saturday.

With the win, the Sharks (29-25-4) moved to within three points of the idle Seattle Kraken for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. The Sharks have 24 games remaining, and a game in hand on the Kraken.

“It’s huge,” Smith said of the weekend sweep. “We dropped (four straight games) before the break. You want to make sure you’re getting those points here at the end of the year. We’ve only got 20-something games left. It’s going to be a tight race.”

The Sharks are now 2-1-0 on a six-game homestand that concludes with games against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, the St. Louis Blues on Friday, and the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Takeaways from Sunday’s game:

MISA CONTINUES TO SHINE

Macklin Celebrini and Smith entered the NHL at 18 and 19, respectively. Now another teenager is showing he’s ready for the pressure of a playoff push.

While Smith and Celebrini, the Sharks’ two leading scorers, were natural choices to start overtime for the Sharks, it says something that coach Ryan Warsofsky soon put Misa out with the game in the balance.

As much as San Jose wants to keep pushing for its first playoff appearance since 2019, it’s still a development season.

With that in mind, the Sharks must like the way Misa, 18, this has come along, especially with every game being so meaningful.

Since his two-assist game against the Florida Panthers on Jan. 19, Misa is third on the Sharks in scoring with nine points (three goals, six assists) in 11 games. Smith and Celebrini are tied with 11 points each in that time.

Misa finished Sunday with a season-high 15:39 in ice time, including 44 seconds of a 100-second overtime, a clear indication of how much equity he’s started to build with Warsofsky.

“He’s earned it,” Warsofsky said of Misa, this past year’s second overall draft pick, of the overtime ice time. “He has earned it by the way he’s played, and that’s something we talked way back in training camp. “You earn your ice, you earn your spot on this team, and he certainly has earned the ice, and he’s going to get more and more. But he earned that OT shift.”

Misa and Eklund hardly spent any time on the same line before Misa left the Sharks to compete for Canada at the World Junior Championships in December. But since Misa returned in January, he and Eklund have formed an effective duo, creating 17 high-danger chances at 5-on-5 play while allowing just 13, per Natural Stat Trick.

“I think whenever (Warsofsky) puts me and (Eklund) together, we usually create,” Misa said. “Since he’s put us together, we’ve had good chemistry. So seeing us out there in overtime together, I thought something was definitely going to click.”

On his overtime goal, Misa, “was the last guy back, so I had to make sure we got in their zone, and one thing led to another.”

The Sharks now have a record of 12-4 in overtime this season, a major reason why they’re in the playoff picture to begin with.

BETTER ON DEFENSE

The Sharks need to do a better job of keeping the puck out of their net, and their win over the Oilers on Saturday was anything but a defensive clinic.

So Sunday’s game was at least a step in the right direction, as they allowed just six high-danger chances during 5-on-5 play, per Natural Stat Trick, down from the 10 per game average they had given up in their last five games.

The Sharks were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill as they allowed five shots while the Jets had the man advantage. Nedeljkovic allowed a first-period goal to Jets winger Morgan Barron, but had 20 saves over the final two periods and overtime.

Nedeljkovic’s biggest save may have come on a Sharks third-period power play, as Barron came in alone and eluded a poke check from the San Jose goalie. But Nedeljkovic made a save with his right pad on Barron’s shot from close range to keep the game tied 1-1.

Starting with his 34-save performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Jan. 6, Nedeljkovic, a pending unrestricted free agent, is 6-1-0 with a .928 save percentage in eight games.

The Sharks have another back-to-back situation on Friday and Saturday, so Nedeljkovic, assuming he’s still in San Jose, will get at least one more start on this homestand.

LINE JUGGLE PAYS OFF

Smith, Celebrini and Kiefer Sherwood had an excellent game together Saturday, with an expected goals-for percentage of 79.41 during 5-on-5 play, and 15 shots on goal combined. Sunday was a different story: The trio did OK but not great.

Some line shuffling by Warsofsky worked. Collin Graf joined Celebrini and Smith late in the second period, and into the third, when the line combined on the Sharks’ first goal.

Graf took a long pass from Celebrini, carried the puck toward the Jets’ net on a Sharks 2-on-1 with Smith, and fired a shot that was stopped by Hellebuyck. The rebound, though, came right to Smith, who directed it into the Jets’ net to tie the game 1-1 with 18:13 left in regulation time.