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Quick bites: Sharks finally get a win

Posted on by Erika Towne

It was a struggle to get there and it wasn’t a pretty path, but the San Jose Sharks can finally say the team has a win this season. It took overtime and a Herculean effort by both Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, but the most important thing is that even when the team lost its lead late in the third period, the Sharks battled back to win and beat the New York Rangers 6-5 in overtime. Better yet, the Sharks put six goals past Igor Shesterkin, who, going into the night, had not allowed more than two goals in a game all season.

Celebrini takes over the game

Last season, we saw the superstar potential in Celebrini. The way he made plays look easy, took the puck away from opponents and picked his spots when scoring. Last night, it was as if he were a man possessed. Celebrini looked as though he was ready to will the Sharks to a win all on his own.

Looking at the Hockey Stat Cards GameScore Impact Card, you can see that Celebrini was so much of a force in the offensive zone and had the puck so much that he barely had to play defense. There is virtually no purple on the card.

Celebrini’s first goal of the hat trick was his ugliest. A shot on the net that ping ponged off of the Rangers in front of the net and past Shesterkin. It was the kind of luck the Sharks needed for the night.

His second one, though, was all skill. A goal in the waning seconds of the first period that made Shesterkin pop up and take notice.

Celebrini didn’t give up on the play, and he wasn’t satisfied going into the locker room with a one-goal lead. He put the puck on the net and completely threw off Shesterkin.

Of course, the Rangers didn’t go away quietly. Not only did New York tie the game up in the second period, but the Rangers took a 4-3 lead, and it looked like the Sharks were going to go from up 3-1 to down 4-3 in the span of 20 minutes. But Celebrini wasn’t going to let that happen. He forced the game to a tie with a shot that froze Shesterkin.

We’ll get to Celebrini’s assists when we talk about Smith, but honestly, the kid was looking to make an impact every time he had the puck.

Smith finds his scoring touch

So, let’s talk about Smith. About a week ago, he was challenged to find a new level to his game. The forward was not scoring, and he was relegated to the third line. But last night, reunited with Celebrini, the two found their chemistry once again. Not only was Smith creating alongside Celebrini, but he finally found the back of the net.

The first one was a broken play with Smith just parking himself in front of the net and using his quick hands as the 5-on-3 power play expired to get the puck past Shesterkin.

It was in the right place, at the right time kind of play and the elation on Smith’s face was great to see. A big goal in a big situation. Even before the game, Smith was already having a great game. He assisted on two of Celebrini’s goals, including the one that gave Celebrini the hat trick.

But it was the final goal of the night, the 6-5 goal that was really impressive. Shesterkin didn’t give Smith a lot of space to shoot at, but Smith found his spot and didn’t miss.

Another injury for the blueline

The Sharks battled throughout the game and the team did it with a shortened bench for most of the game. Just as the Sharks got one blueliner back, the team lost another one. Early in the first period, Nick Leddy took a hit that looked like it might knock him out of the lineup for a few weeks. This is the hit.

You can see the minute it happened, Leddy doubled over and headed to the bench. He went down the tunnel and did not return to the game. The Sharks played with five defensemen for the rest of the night. The loss of Leddy comes just after Timothy Liljegren returned to the lineup after missing a few games with an injury of his own.

What the Sharks do moving forward will be interesting. The team could finish out the roadtrip without calling anyone up. John Klingberg is on the trip and could play tonight against the New Jersey Devils. Sam Dickinson sat last night as part of a planned learning day, so he could also play today. If the Sharks need extra insurance, the team can call up Luca Cagnoni, who was called up for one game and then sent back to San Jose when it was determined Liljegren was healthy to play.

There are options, all of which would probably make Sharks fans happier than seeing Leddy in the lineup, so all is not lost.

Highlight

We’re giving the highlight of the night to the third line of Adam Gaudette, Michael Misa and Collin Graf, who had the first goal of the night. Sadly, the work of this line got lost in the mix of all those other goals. It was Gaudette’s goal and his 100th career point. It was also the second consecutive game that the trio has scored for the Sharks.

Scoring summary San Jose Sharks at New York Rangers Oct. 23, 2025

First period
1:58 SJS Adam Gaudette from Collin Graf and Michael Misa
6:17 SJS Macklin Celebrini from William Eklund and Dmitry Orlov on the power play
14:19 NYR Taylor Raddysh from Sam Carrick and Carson Soucy
19:51 SJS Macklin Celebrini from Will Smith and William Eklund

Second period
4:04 NYR Mika Zibanejad from Alexis Lafreniere and J.T. Miller on the power play
6:47 NYR Juuso Parssinen from Conor Sheary
12:10 NYR Taylor Raddysh unassisted shorthanded
19:54 SJS Macklin Celebrini from Will Smith and Dmitry Orlov

Third period
6:31 SJS Will Smith from William Eklund and Macklin Celebrini
11:50 NYR Taylor Raddysh from J.T. Miller and Adam Fox

Overtime
1:38 SJS Will Smith from Macklin Celebrini and Alex Nedeljkovic

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