Sharks get Maple Leafed in Boston for first regulation loss

So. That happened.

Despite thoroughly dominating a Bruins' team that may have been suffering the after-effects of playing last night the Sharks are turned away with their first regulation loss of the season. Worst of all is how it happened -- a goal from David Krejci with just 0.8 seconds between the Sharks and an well-deserve overtime point.

Coming into the game a point would have been a fine result for the Sharks; missing Brent Burns, Dan Boyle, Raffi Torres, Martin Havlat and, after a hit from Zdeno Chara early in the contest, Tommy Wingels certainly hurt San Jose's chances. But then the Sharks came out and didn't just compete -- they outright dominated the Bruins with only Tuukka Rask keeping Boston in the hockey game.

The Sharks fully dominated the first period of play, outshooting the Bruins 13-2 and generating the vast majority of the scoring chances. Tommy Wingels had an opportunity to clean up a Tomas Hertl shot and Freddie Hamilton had two chances to puck up his first goal of the season. Tuukka Rask stood strong in net for Boston and the Bruins were able to escape the first frame without surrendering a goal.

Despite being thoroughly outplayed (again) in the second period, it was the Bruins who would draw first blood. Jerome Iginla squeaked a shot under the pads of Niemi with just over a minute to play to put Boston up 1-0.

It only took 18 seconds for the Sharks to equalize in the third period as Patrick Marleau finally beat Rask to even the score at 1-1. Less than a minute later Tomas Hertl and Joe Thornton had a chance to make it a 2-1 Sharks’ lead. An odd-man rush gave Thornton the chance to slip the puck to Hertl who was robbed by Rask to deny the rookie his eighth goal of the season.

After a Rask save early in the third period Zdeno Chara cross-checked Hertl in the face without drawing a call. As these things seem to happen, it was Chara who ended up drawing a penalty just a minute later with Thornton heading to the box for a trip. The Sharks killed off the penalty but the Bruins had found new life and were starting to even up the shot margin.

As the final period started to wind down it looked like the Sharks were going to get out of Boston with at least a point under their belts, but poor puck management in their own zone led to Krejci getting a shot off just before the buzzer sounded. For the first time in 10 games the Sharks left the ice with as many points as they had when they came on to it.

[Corsi Report] - [Bruins Reaction]

[Event Summary] - [PBP Log] - [TOI Log] - [Faceoff Report]

• Who said luck has nothing to do with hockey? No, seriously; I want to find that person and force them to watch this game.
• Tuukka Rask was playing out of his mind -- that's why the Bruins won this game. I still like our Finn better than their Finn.
• In most circumstances this would be a heartbreaking loss for me. But this year? With the way this team has played? I'm not so concerned. The Sharks won so many games early last year that they deserved to lose that it's almost refreshing to instead lose a game they deserved to win.
• Hopefully Wingels will be okay to go this weekend. I'm not sure how much more battering this Sharks team can take on the injury front.
• Not a huge fan of Chara.
• I still can't believe the Sharks lost this hockey game.
• San Jose has scored one non-shootout goal in the last 125 minutes of play. So there's that.
• Only one powerplay for each side made this one of the fastest hockey games I've ever seen. It was the antithesis of every Red Sox game I have ever seen.
• Hoping for positive news on the injury front before Saturday's contest in Montreal.

FTF Three Stars