The San Jose Sharks were 2-0 beating both the Vegas Golden Knights and the Los Angeles Kings leading up to the final game of the Rookie Faceoff tournament being held in Henderson and Las Vegas.
However, the Sharks failed to capitalize on a tournament sweep when San Jose suffered a loss to the Arizona Coyotes by a score of 5-3 in Las Vegas for the tournament finale.
This game featured an empty San Jose Sharks team compared to previous games. The Sharks coaching staff opted to keep players such as Thomas Bordeleau and William Eklund out of the lineup. Instead, the Sharks’ top players of the game included Tristen Robins, Quentin Musty and Shakir Mukhamadullin who all took top-line roles.
The Arizona Coyotes have some familiar names in its lineup as well. Earlier this summer, the team announced it had signed former Barracuda defenseman Montana Onyebuchi to an entry-level contract. Onyebuchi was kept off the scoresheet in the reunion matchup.
In the first period, the undrafted Drew Elliott scored first for the ‘Yotes at 4:20 into the game off the rush. Elliott raced down towards the boards and cut in towards the edge of the net to tuck it in.
The Sharks would then proceed to attempt to recoup, but were unable to put one behind the net in the first and going 0-for-3 on the powerplay which also included a 5-on-3 opportunity that Sharks failed to take advantage of.
Within the final seven minutes of the second period, Sharks rookie faceoff invite Felix Gagnon scored during a 5-on-3 powerplay that was presented for the Sharks to tie the game 1-1.
Coyotes caught the tail of the Sharks when Josh Doan scored shortly after Gagnon had shed hope for team teal.
San Jose then saw the impact of General Manager Mike Grier’s first trade. Conor Geekie, who Arizona picked at 11th overall in the 2022 draft after a trade with San Jose, decided to dig the hole deeper for the Sharks to try and escape out of when he scored by blasting the puck into the far corner while backhanded on Sharks goaltender Mason Beaupit during the Coyotes powerplay to give Arizona a two-goal lead with a score of 3-1.
Beaupit, San Jose’s 2022 108th overall draft selection stopped 29 of 34 in total.
Camp invite Cam MacDonald scored a shorthanded goal for the Coyotes as the Sharks gave away the puck to MacDonald who stood between the two Sharks blueliners to intercept on an attempted pass, which led to a breakaway goal for Arizona.
The first-round draft selection via New Jersey Devils from the Timo Meier trade package, Musty, scored his first goal of the tournament when the puck landed right in front of him. Musty raced towards the puck to launch it into the open net, cutting the lead in half for a score of 4-2.
Shortly after the goal, first line center for this game and 2020 second round pick for San Jose, Robins dropped the gloves on Ben Boyd who was alerted after Robins dashed towards the same puck that was shot in from Musty. This was Robins’ first-ever professional hockey fight.
Arizona’s 2021 second-round draft selection, Doan scored off a dish from Geekie for the Coyotes. Doan concludes the Rookie Faceoff with four goals and three assists for a total of seven points in the tournament.
Within the same minute, the Sharks 2020 4th round pick Brandon Coe scored to put up the final tally registered for the Sharks in this tournament. Shortly afterwards, another fight between 6’ 2” Joseph Henneberry for the Sharks and 5’ 11” Elliot for the Yotes broke out which finished with Henneberry helmetless.
At the end of the game, the Coyotes 2022 3rd round selection, Jeremy Langlois was called with a boarding penalty, giving Arizona its eighth and final penalty of the match. The game finished with the Sharks going 1-for-7 on the powerplay which hurt the team’s chance to catch up and potentially change the outcome of the game.
The San Jose Sharks finish the rookie tournament 2-1-0 with training camp beginning on Thursday, Sept. 21. The Sharks’ first preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights is on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 5 p.m. in San Jose. This will be the last time before the regular season to see the Sharks’ top prospects before they are sent back to their respective leagues.
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