The San Jose Sharks put up a fight last night against the Vancouver Canucks at the SAP Center, which resulted in a 2-1 loss in overtime. The Canucks currently are holding that fourth-place spot in the Pacific Division with 25 wins in 54 games played. Their captain, Quinn Hughes, has been out for three consecutive games for an undisclosed injury and he did not play last night. As for the Sharks, they are all over the place following some trades, AHL call-ups, and new lines.
So, what happened last night in San Jose?
Vanecek kept San Jose in the game
The Sharks started very strong, with Vitek Vanecek making incredible saves in the first period. The goalie had just returned from a conditioning assignment on the San Jose Barracuda and made a splash in last night’s matchup with 22 saves.
The #SJSharks have recalled G Vitek Vanecek from his conditioning assignment with the @sjbarracuda.
— San Jose Sharks PR (@SanJoseSharksPR) February 2, 2025
Yaroslav Askarov has been assigned to the Barracuda.
Though the first was mostly uneventful, the Sharks took two penalties. The first was a tripping call against Andrew Poturalski who tried to change direction and caught the leg of Filip Chytil. The second was Mario Ferraro against Drew O’Connor for cross-checking. This gave Vancouver two power plays but no goals scored at the end of the first.
The second period was also very on par with the first. A penalty was called on Jake Walman for roughing against Conor Garland, and then a call on the Canucks Drew O’Connor against Walman. The score remained the same after two periods, 0-0.
The third period is where the game started to pick up. Sharks went into the third on the power play, but could not score on the man advantage. It was quickly followed by a delay of game penalty for Macklin Celebrini. The rookie seemed to take it hard, putting his stick over his head in frustration.
Celebrini can't believe he took that delay of game penalty, puts his stick over his head, taking it hard.
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) February 7, 2025
Zetterlund, a good teammate, not even on the PK, comes over to give him a stick tap.
Unfortunately #SJSharks can't pick him up, a shame, he's been otherwise terrific…
The Canucks scored in the first half of the third period to break the 0-1 tie. After ten minutes of back and forth with the Sharks threatening to score several times, Tyler Toffoli finally tied the game with Vanecek on the bench and an extra attacker on the ice.
Tyler Toffoli – San Jose Sharks (20) pic.twitter.com/KMjrIInZTk
— NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) February 7, 2025
This is the first time the Sharks have scored with the goaltender pulled in several games.
The third period ended only to start overtime for the Sharks. It was the first time the Sharks pushed a game to overtime since the team’s matchup against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 21. Overtime was brief, with a penalty called on Celebrini for hooking O’Connor on the breakaway, the refs awarded O’Connor a penalty shot. O’Connor scored to end the game.
While this game was a series of unfortunate events for Celebrini, the Sharks offense was shining bright. As we can see here on the heat map from Natural Stat Trick in all situations, the Sharks had 34 shots on goal, creating many opportunities.
Celebrini’s role In this game:
As we saw last night, The Shark’s first-round pick, Macklin Celebrini, might have had his worst individual game in the NHL.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for San Jose Sharks on 2025-02-06: pic.twitter.com/cQCg2401Gf
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) February 7, 2025
He started with the delay of game penalty, which resulted in Vancouver scoring its first goal of the night. The kid seemed frustrated, though he seemed to have lightened up with a celebration for Toffolis’s tying goal, but in overtime, he slipped up again, creating the penalty that lost the Sharks the game in overtime.
So far in his rookie year, he leads the rookie season with 39 points in 44 games. While the game was not a good look for him, we all have our rough days. Was last night’s loss Celebrini’s fault? No, it takes a certain amount of mess-ups to be the entire reason, and Celebrini has a long way to go. He still scored himself the third star of the game.
Vitek Vanecek is a father!
On a lighter note, the second star of last night’s game very recently became a father.
The 29-year-old goalie and his wife, Kristyna, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Tobias. Big Congratulations to the Vanecek family!
In the first period, he came up with a big save. It would be one of many great saves for the night, leading to enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. It looked like one of Vanecek’s best games in teal, which is especially impressive since he missed nearly two months due to injury.
This was Vanecek’s first game back since December. He last played on Dec. 14, in a loss to the Utah Hockey Club.
Scoring summary Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks Feb. 6, 2025
First Period
No Goals
Second Period
No Goals
Third Period
8:04 VAN Dakota Joshua from Pius Suter and Tyler Myers
18:32 SJS Tyler Toffoli from William Eklund
Overtime
0:33 VAN Drew O’Connor unassisted penalty shot
