The San Jose Sharks have had what can only be called a rough season. The team has lost 37 of the 63 games played so far, but you wouldn’t know that after last night’s 6-2 win in Buffalo, San Jose’s second win in as many nights. The Buffalo Sabres currently rank eighth in the Atlantic Division, with 24 wins in the 60 the team has played this year. The two teams defended their division’s bottom spot, and the Sharks came out victorious.
The first period was parallel to Monday’s game, where no scoring took place. The second period is where the game started to pick up, where Timothy Liljegren found a corner, where the puck appeared to go into the net but was not ruled a goal right away. What the ref saw as a bounce off the post was, in reality, a puck that completely crossed the line after review.
THATāS A GOAL š¤ pic.twitter.com/20IbL7ZR61
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) March 5, 2025
The Sharks got on the board first, but Buffalo’s JJ Peterka tied things up three minutes later.
The second period was the most penalty-heavy, having four total, and three of those going against San Jose. The highlight of the penalties was a roughing penalty on San Jose’s Luke Kunin and Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin after the two started to shove each other after a hit. As the physicality started to die down, the Sharks continued to push Buffalo around offensively. Nico Sturm regained the lead for the Sharks just before the close of the second period.
Unlike in games past, the Sharks weren’t content to sit on that small lead. As the coaching staff has been trying to teach the players, it’s about getting that second and third and fourth goal to put teams away. So it was very exciting for Sharks fans to see the third period start with a William Eklund goal. Eklund slipped one into the net with the apple from Tyler Toffoli and Shakir Mukhamadullin.
That cushion proved necessary because Buffalo’s Tage Thompson was the next to get one on the board. However, this was the last time Buffalo would score because, in just one minute, Macklin Celebrini regained the two-goal lead for the Sharks.
And if things couldn’t be more exciting for the Sharks, Will Smith added one of his own from Fabian Zetterlund.
Buffalo pulled Goaltener Ukka-Pekka Lukkonen, who had a 22-save game with some impressive saves, and Tyler Toffoli solidified the win with an empty net goal with 1:59 left in the game.
The San Jose Sharks now have back-to-back wins on their road trip. Looking at the heat map from Natural Stat Trick in all situations, the Sharks created a wide range of shot locations and made availability.
Sharks fans will be thrilled to see that the younger players on the team made a huge impact on this game. As shown in Hockey Stat Cards’ GameScore Impact card for last night’s game, it was the youngest players on the team that made the biggest impact with Eklund, Liljegren, Smith, Mukhamadullin and Celebrini the top five performers for the Sharks.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for San Jose Sharks on 2025-03-04: pic.twitter.com/Ya5DRnEYa9
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) March 5, 2025
Marc Edouard Vlasic breaking an NHL record
But scoring isn’t the only thing that counts in hockey and long-time Shark Marc Edouard Vlasic had a record-making night in his own regard. Vlasic has set a new NHL record for most blocked shots in an NHL career with 2,165 and counting.
Vlasic blocked two shots last night against Buffalo.
Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at Buffalo Sabres March 4, 2025
First Period
No scoring
Second period
1:01 SJS Timothy Liljegren from William Eklund and Jake Walman
5:13 BUF JJ Peterka from Rasmus Dahlin and Jack Quinn on the power play
18:22 SJS Nico Sturm from Collin Graf and Klim Kostin
Third period
2:19 SJS William Eklund from Tyler Toffoli and Shakir Mukhamadullin
6:55 BUF Tage Thompson from JJ Peterka and Connor Clifton
7:58 SJS Macklin Celebrini from Shakir Mukhamadullin and Will Smith
12:49 SJS Will Smith from Fabian Zetterlund
18:01 SJS Tyler Toffoli from Jake Walman and Timothy Liljegren into an empty net
