Not all of the wins for the San Jose Sharks this season are going to be pretty, and the 2-1 overtime win against the Minnesota Wild last night certainly counts as one of the ugly ones. The Wild absolutely dominated the Sharks for most of the game and it was only by sheer luck and strong goaltending by Yaroslav Askarov that the Sharks were capable of competing in the last 10 minutes of the third period. Looking at Natural Stat Trick’s game flow chart in all situations, you can see that the Wild jumped on the Sharks out of the gate.
While the Sharks showed some pushback in the latter part of the first period and in parts of the second period, none of that pressure lasted for long. The second period was especially bad, when the Sharks were outshot 15-5 and the scoring chances were 10-6 in Minnesota’s favor.
Askarov rises to the challenge
However, it’s moments like those that you need your goaltender to come up big, and Askarov did just that. Natural Stat Trick reports he stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced last night and finished the night with a plus-2.04 goals saved above expected. While the second period wasn’t good for the Sharks, Askarov had a different take on it.
“That was hard period for us, but oil for goalies. Goalies love a lot of shots. So, that was good for me. That felt good. Felt I’ve been in the game,” said Askarov.
With this win, Askarov is now 4-0-0 with a .964 save percentage and 8.64 goals saved above average since Nov. 1, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Last night’s win is especially impressive given that Askarov was not expected to start. After the morning skate, Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky said that Alex Nedeljkovic was going to be the starting goaltender in Minnesota. It wasn’t a huge deal since both Nedeljkovic and Askarov have been running hot lately. However, when it was time for the Sharks to skate onto the ice for warmups, it wasn’t Nedeljkovic leading the Sharks onto the ice, but Askarov.
San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng asked Warsofsky about it postgame. Warsofsky said Nedeljkovic had a personal matter to attend to, but the team doesn’t think he’ll be away too long.
So, even without much of a heads-up, Askarov was able to jump on the ice and get his head in the game.
“Asky was outstanding. Our penalty kill even game up one that was really good but Asky was the reason why we had a chance,” said Warsofsky after the game. “I’m proud of Asky the way he performed today.”
William Eklund returns from injury
While William Eklund did not get on the scoreboard last night, he deserves a lot of credit for helping the Sharks stay in the game. Looking at HockeyStatCards GameScore Impact Card from last night, you can see that Eklund was the most effective player for the Sharks.
In fact, the line of Eklund, Philipp Kurashev and Alex Wennberg was forced that did a lot of the heavy lifting for the Sharks. Having a good second line was important for San Jose because Minnesota really worked hard to shutdown Macklin Celebrini last night.
“[Joel] Eriksson Ek is one of the most underrated centers in this game. The way he checks, he’s one of the best, man. He’s really hard to play against. Hinesy [John Hynes] does a good job with their structure, but their guys, they check,” said Warsofsky. “This is a tough matchup for us, and they did a good job on Mack. We try to get away from it there a little bit, but they did a good job of taking away time and space, and that’s something we couldn’t really generate until the third period.”
As a result, it allowed the Wennberg line to create many of the chances that the Sharks had last night.
The goals
As for the goals, the power play goal that the Sharks scored with just over eight minutes left in the third period was a thing of beauty. It was a perfect passing play that cut up the Minnesota penalty kill.
ABOUT AS PERFECT OF A PASSING PLAY AS YOU COULD DRAW UP 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/FngYgF9nT5
— NHL (@NHL) November 12, 2025
Will Smith got the goal, Celebrini got the primary assist and Tyler Toffoli got the secondary assist.
On the overtime goal, Smith was off on the change after a long shift and a fresh-legged Collin Graf jumped onto the ice. Celebrini was also still on the ice after a long shift, but he managed to gather the puck in the neutral zone and get just enough into the Minnesota zone to get a pass off to Graf. Graf did the rest.
Collin Graf calls game. 🔥#TheFutureIsTeal pic.twitter.com/RlQFvUXHXA
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) November 12, 2025
The Sharks won 2-1, sending home some angry and frustrated Minnesota fans, some of whom no doubt remembered the last overtime in which the Wild also lost in overtime when the team probably should have won.
Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at Minnesota Wild Nov. 11, 2025
First period
No scoring
Second period
5:02 MIN Matt Boldy from Mats Zuccarello and Zeev Buium on the power play
Third period
11:57 SJS Will Smith from Macklin Celebrini and Tyler Toffoli on the power play
Overtime
2:41 SJS Collin Graf from Macklin Celebrini and Sam Dickinson
