Comments / New

Quick bites: Filthy mitts fend off Maple Leafs

Posted on by Erika Towne

Yes, the San Jose Sharks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time this season; a 6-5 shootout win. Yes, the Sharks have swept the Atlantic Division leading Maple Leafs this season. Maple Leafs fans are likely melting down this morning. However, the rest of the league will be talking about the shootout and the highlights that came out of it, most specifically from “The Future is Teal.”

The Maple Leafs didn’t pull any punches, trotting out the big guns in Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander. The Sharks countered with their young guns — Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini. For the Leafs, Marner was the only one to score. For the Sharks, well the highlights are making the rounds on social media this morning.

Superstar in the making Macklin Celebrini technically has the shootout winner with this beauty:

Celebrini goes high on a sprawling Joseph Woll.

Of course, to understand why Woll stayed up like that to try and poke the puck away from Celebrini, you’d have to first see what the set up man did. Smith led the Sharks off in the shootout, setting up Woll perfectly.

Smith made it look like it was too easy and likely gave Woll a lot to think about as Celebrini prepared for his shootout attempt.

But as fun as those two were to watch last night, the first star didn’t go to either of them. It went to Tyler Toffoli, who scored two goals last night and is now three goals away from another 30-goal season.

After the game, Toffoli did what many well-respected and strong leaders do, he didn’t dwell on his accomplishments but rather what’s happening around him.

“Just trying to play the best I can and lead by example. I think everybody in the locker room right now is really buying in, and it’s been pretty good,” said Toffoli.

5-on-5 play

Did the Sharks give up two goals in the last two minutes of the game to allow the Maple Leafs to tie it? Yes, they did.

But let’s be honest, there aren’t many teams that can roll out a six-man unit of Matthews, Marner, Nylander, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly and Matthew Knies. The fact that the Sharks held on to keep it at a tie game should not be overlooked.

So, let’s talk about 5-on-5 play, where the Sharks really controlled the game against an offensively gifted team. From Natural Stat Trick’s Corsi chart at 5v5, you can see that the Sharks had a majority of the control.

This is a case where all four lines seemed to be rolling. The top line was, as expected, the line of William Eklund, Celebrini and Smith, which had a 61.11% Corsi for at 5-on-5 play. The second line of Toffoli, Alex Wennberg and Collin Graf had a 52.94% Corsi for at 5-on-5.

The fourth line of Barclay Goodrow, Zack Ostapchuk and Carl Grundstrom was even with 50%, while the third line of Cam Lund, Patrick Giles and Ty Dellandrea had a 43.75% Corsi for.

And we should take a minute to recognize Timothy Liljegren, who was the best defenseman on the ice last night.

Liljegren was all over his former team and ended the night with two assists.

Alex Wennberg’s 100th NHL goal; Eklund’s career year

There were a lot of impressive plays in last night’s game. Graf had a beautiful shorthanded goal that once again highlighted what a steal the Sharks got signing him out of college.

It’s feeling more and more like we could slot him into a third-line role on a contending team.

Then there were a few milestones. Wennberg, who has done everything the Sharks have asked of him and more this season, hit a personal milestone. He scored his 100th career goal during the second period to give the Sharks a 3-1 lead at the time.

Then there was Eklund, who is having another career season. Eklund already has nine more points than he did last season. The goal he scored last night, a fluke goal on a misplayed puck by Woll, led to Eklund’s 17th of the season, one more than he scored last season.

Welcome to the NHL Cam Lund

From his bucketless first NHL lap at the start of warmups …

To his family and friends in the crowd watching it as it happened.

Lund had a good start to his NHL career. He had 11:06 of total ice time, a Corsi for percentage of 60.87, according to Natural Stat Trick, and he had a shot on goal. After the game, Warsofsky had nothing but praise for the kid saying he was “incredible” considering it was his first NHL game.

It was also an exciting game to get his feet wet in a game against one of the top team’s in the league.

“I mean, just being out there with, like Matthews, Marner, like all these guys obviously, top players in the league. So kind of just seeing that in person is kind of unreal,” said Lund after the game.

Walking the halls below SAP Center postgame, there were at least a few dozen people standing around waiting to congratulate Lund on his pro debut.

Scoring Summary Toronto Maple Leafs at San Jose Sharks March 27, 2025

First Period
7:50 SJS Tyler Toffoli from Lucas Carlsson and Timothy Liljegren
14:40 TOR William Nylander from Matthew Knies and John Tavares on the power play
17:45 SJS Collin Graf from Mario Ferraro shorthanded

Second Period
1:39 SJS Alex Wennberg from Tyler Toffoli and Timothy Liljegren
4:46 TOR Auston Matthews from Matthew Knies and Mitch Marner on the power play
13:18 SJS William Eklund unassisted
15:13 TOR Scott Laughton from David Kampf and Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Third Period
3:02 SJS Tyler Toffoli from William Eklund and Macklin Celebrini on the power play

Shootout
TOR William Nylander goal
SJS Will Smith goal
TOR Auston Matthews shot saved by Alexandar Georgiev
SJS Macklin Celebrini goal
TOR Mitch Marner shot wide

fear the fin logoCLICK HERE  – SUBSCRIBE to our Newsletter!
As many of you know, Fear the Fin is an independent site run by Sharks fans for Sharks fans. Help keep Fear the Fin independent by contributing to our GoFundMe or buying merchandise. Proceeds help us pay our writers and fund subscriptions to our favorite analytics sites.

Looking for an easy way to support FearTheFin?
Use our Affiliate Link when shopping hockey merch this holiday season!

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points