With a chance at redemption after a blown 3-0 lead in neighboring Edmonton, the Sharks stumbled once again against the Calgary Flames. Two points lost to a Calgary team that’s struggled to win this season feel like a bit more than that, considering how tight the Western Conference playoff race has become, but the Sharks will have to move on and find a way to salvage more points out of this road trip.
Will Smith got the game going early for San Jose with a power play goal, his fourth in the 7 games since his return from injury. The Sharks couldn’t build on that lead, however, before Calgary evened the score at 1 to end the first. The Sharks looked set to get a 5-on-3 power play late in that period, but a controversial call against the Sharks turned what could’ve been a great chance to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room into a 5 on 4 that the Sharks couldn’t strike on. Clearly animated, coach Ryan Warsofsky tried his best to dissuade the officials. He later expressed more frustration post-game with this quote:
The teams went on to trade goals again in the second period. The scoring even followed a similar pattern, with San Jose getting an early goal in the period only to have Calgary tie it up and keep things shut. This all left it up to the final frame to decide on a winner. Calgary pulled ahead on a goal by Joel Farabee, 6:53 into the third. This still left plenty of time for the Sharks to tie the game, but Dustin Wolf, who always seems to put on his best show against his hometown team, shut the door the rest of the night to seal the home win for Calgary.
In other news, both Shakir Mukhamadullin and Phillip Kurashev both made their long-awaited returns to the lineup after injuries that had both miss several weeks of hockey. Smith’s return a few weeks ago, along with the recoveries of these two, is a much welcomed sign as the Sharks will need all the help they can get to try to finish off this trip on a good note.
Nedeljkovic shows resilience
Alex Nedeljkovic has earned a lot of respect in the Bay Area for his spirited play in goal as of late. He once again kept San Jose within striking distance of a win in Calgary tonight, despite the Sharks being quite heavily outshot 42-25. Nedeljkovic was busy making incredible saves in the third period when the Sharks were pushing for the tying goal, but late in the game there was cause for concern. Following one flurry that ended with him low on the ice, Nedeljkovic took his time to get back up. We were not sure if it was just the exhaustion of the game, cramping, or something more serious. Then, a shift or two later, Nedelkkojivs sprawled once again and made an important save, but then needed help from the trainers and Dmitry Orlov to get up and gingerly glide to the Sharks’ bench.
The TV broadcast panned to Yaroslav Askarov coming in for relief, then went to a commercial break. Upon the end of the TV timeout, Nedeljkovic was back in the net and immediately jumped into action, looking lively and dialed in. Thankfully what was an injury scare only remained a scare, and Nedeljkovic was able to complete the game. Despite the bolstered depth in goal with Laurent Brossoit’s recent addition to the organization, it would have been a blow to the team to lose someone as beloved as Nedeljkovic. With his recent fight against Sergei Bobrovsky, and his play through what seemed like a slight injury, he’s embodied a lot of the grit the Sharks will need down the stretch.
Unforced errors make a difference
The Sharks did not play poorly, but still had a relatively sloppy game. This happens, and there will be many nights throughout a rigorous 82 game schedule where the team just doesn’t connect as it plans to. Several times last night, the Sharks sloppy play got in the way of a good opportunity. There were missed reads on a pinch, errant passes, and so on. The most frustrating example of this came with 2:37 left in the game. The Sharks, down by just one and somehow just one good shot away from tying it up, took a too many men on the ice call that sunk most of the hope in coming back.
We see all of the good things this team has done throughout 2025-26, and can only hope that these minor but costly blunders can become more a thing of the past.
Gaudette stays hot
Don’t look now, but this summer’s sneaky free agent signing is on pace for what would be the first 20-goal season of his career. Gaudette is an innate goal scorer, and he’s showing that maybe he just needed the opportunity to do so with some more consistent ice time. Last year, Gaudette had a career breakout year with 19 goals in 81 games for the Ottawa Senators, with a high 21.1 shooting percentage. It would have been surprising for him to fall off a bit from this pace this year, given his prior career NHL numbers, but he’s only shown that last season wasn’t a fluke. Currently, Gaudette boasts a 20% for his shooting percentage, which is top 15 in the league. By the way, second in the entire NHL is none other than Collin Graf.
The Sharks need to find ways to win without Celebrini scoring, and there is clearly a spark that Gaudette can provide offensively. Look for him to continue to capitalize on his scoring opportunities, and hopefully be rewarded with better offensive deployment by Warsofsky’s coaching staff.
Highlight
Dustin Wolf’s heroics, including a game-saving stop for Calgary on San Jose’s best made the difference last night. Wolf read this so well, and even had time to stare Celebrini down after making the stretch to make the save. If Celebrini puts this home, who knows what that momentum could have done for the Sharks to go into overtime. Instead, the Flames get 2 points, the Sharks get none.
Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at Calgary Flames Jan. 31, 2026
First Period
3:11 SJS Will Smith from Alexander Wennberg
14:44 CAL Morgan Frost from Matt Coronato and Jonathan Huberdeau
Second Period
1:21 SJS Adam Gaudette from William Eklund and Michael Misa
6:59 CAL Matvei Gridin from Morgan Frost and MacKenzie Weegar
Third Period
6:53 CAL Joel Farabee from Mikael Backlund and Kevin Bahl
