The San Jose Sharks picked up right where the team left off a few nights ago against the Los Angeles Kings, jumping on the New Jersey Devils early and often. The result was a 5-2 regulation win; the Sharks’ first regulation win of the season.
The Sharks attacked the Devils with speed, triggering a quick strike from William Eklund that beat Jake Allen five-hole in the first minute of last night’s game.
San Jose didn’t look back from there. The Sharks pushed the pace offensively in the first period and outscored the Devils 3-1.
In the second period, the team seemed to smell blood in the water, creating chance after chance. San Jose had 16 shots to the Devils’ 4, according to Natural Stat Trick, and 16 scoring chances to the Devils’ 2. Even better, the Sharks added two more goals to the scoreboard to take a 5-1 lead into the locker room.
While the Devils added a second goal in the first five minutes of the third period, the Sharks worked hard to keep New Jersey from getting back into the game. It was not the most exciting period of hockey for the Sharks, but it got the job done, and the team did a good job of limiting New Jersey’s chances and preventing the Devils from finding a foothold to get back into the game.
Nedeljkovic solid in the net
One of the reasons the Sharks were able to end the game in regulation was the guy in the net. Alex Nedeljkovic was reliable for save after save. He stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced. While he only allowed two goals, his expected goals against was 2.44. After the game, Nedeljkovic gave credit to the guys in front of him.
“I thought we were pretty disciplined in our own end, very detailed, and we were putting our bodies on the line. Guys were blocking a lot of shots tonight,” he said. “There are a couple times there pucks coming from the point where I didn’t really have a good sight on it and it ended up never getting through.”
As for the two goals that Nedeljkovic let in, they were on plays that he couldn’t really do anything about. The first was a tip play. Dawson Mercer was standing in front of the net all alone and put his stick down for Jack Hughes to bank the puck off of.
He’s a cool Dawg, but he does bite.#NJDevils | @Mikes_Amazing pic.twitter.com/M2qEHqusmy
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) October 31, 2025
On the second, the Devils shot the puck from the point and it changed direction when it hit off of Mercer’s leg.
Nedeljkovic knows that with the kind of talent the Devils have, things like that are going to happen.
“They got a lot of skill on that end. They got some high-powered players and they’re going to get their chances, and they’re going to get their looks and stuff like that,” he said. “I thought we did a good job limiting them, especially five-on-five. You give them two on the power play. One, Jack made a nice play, nice shot pass, and then, you know, they get a little bit of a good bounce there on the second one too. But we can live with those. Clean up some things in the PK, but I think five and five tonight, we were really good.”
Penalty kill still needs work
Nedeljkovic is right about the penalty kill. The Sharks took two penalties last night and allowed the Devils to score on both. Any night that you go 0% on the penalty kill is a night where you have to go back to the drawing board. The Sharks will face two tough teams this weekend.
The Colorado Avalanche are 23rd in the league with a 17.8% power play. That 23rd can be deceiving since there are players like Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog and Cale Makar on the ice. Then, there are the Detroit Red Wings, who are 9th in the league with a 27.3% power play success rate this season. These are two teams you do not want to give a lot of chances to.
When asked what the Sharks need to work on today to get prepared for tomorrow’s afternoon game, Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky was
“Just our details in our penalty kill. We show things that we’re still seeing mistakes of. So us as coaches need to continue to work on it and fix it and figure out ways to get them to understand the details of it in a better, consistent fashion,” he said.
After 11 games, the Sharks’ penalty kill is ranked 30th in the league with a 63.9% kill rate.
Decision time for Sam Dickinson
Finally, it’s decision time for the Sharks when it comes to defenseman Sam Dickinson. The 19-year-old just played game nine, which means the Sharks need to decide whether he’s in the NHL to stay or headed back to his junior team. Unfortunately, the AHL is not an option.
Dickinson has shown improvement in every game he’s played this season, though he’s had sheltered minutes. Last night, he played 15 shifts for 14:22 of ice time. All of that was at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick. While Dickinson has yet to register a point in his short NHL career, he is getting better defensively, something that Warsofsky alluded to in his postgame media scrum last night.
“I thought they [Dickinson and Mukhamadullin] were good. We’ll go back and watch it, but put a young pair together against a really good team, you’re gonna have moments where they get put on their heels, and everything’s not perfect, but there’s things that we can work on with them,” he said. “I thought both of them, their game got better as the game went on. Muk didn’t look very out of place after missing some time.”
When asked by San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng if there’s any good news to share with Dickinson, Warsofsky smiled.
“No, not yet,” he said.
Highlight
Our highlight of the night goes to Alex Wennberg, who played in his 800th career NHL game and had a goal and an assist. Wennberg was a happy addition to the team last season and continues to do the little things that bring joy to my life as a Sharks fan suffering through the rebuilding years. Both on and off the ice, he just seems like a good guy, and so when he succeeds, we should all smile. Plus, that’s just a great screen.
They put on the throwbacks and started playing like it's 2006 🙌 pic.twitter.com/g32POSpiqO
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) October 31, 2025
Scoring summary New Jersey Devils at San Jose Sharks Oct. 30, 2025
First period
0:42 SJS William Eklund from Philipp Kurashev
12:12 SJS Philipp Kurashev from Alex Wennberg
15:47 SJS Alex Wennberg from Mario Ferraro and Timothy Liljegren
19:00 NJD Dawson Mercer from Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton on the power play
Second period
16:50 SJS Will Smith from Macklin Celebrini
18:30 SJS Tyler Toffoli from Dmitry Orlov and Timothy Liljegren
Third period
4:19 NJD Dawson Mercer from Dougie Hamilton and Jasper Bratt on the power play
