This may have been the best win for the San Jose Sharks this season. The Sharks held their own against one of the best teams in the league and managed to beat the Washington Capitals 2-1 in overtime.
Looking at the Corsi differential at even strength last night, you can see that the Sharks had a strong start and then weathered the storm from the Capitals. That dip in the second period was when the Sharks maintained zone time midway through the period and hemmed the Capitals in their own zone for more than two minutes. An icing helped the Sharks get a line change and dominate the Capitals zone for a bit longer after that.
Following that effort in the second period, it was a pretty back-and-forth game.
The Sharks outshot the Capitals 13-4 in the final frame and had 15 scoring chances to the Capitals’ 5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Containing the Capitals’ power play
The one thing the Sharks did very well in the game was tamping down Washington’s power play. Going into the game, the Caps had scored 13 goals in the team’s last 29 chances. The Sharks limited the number of power plays the team gave up, only allowing the Capitals three chances on the man advantage, one of which was stunted when the Capitals took a penalty of their own.
What’s more, San Jose did a good job of keeping the puck away from Mackenzie Blackwood. There were three shots on goal by the Capitals in 4:34 of power play time. None of those chances were considered “high danger.”
Preventing the Capitals from scoring on the power play was a huge reason the Sharks won last night.
Celebrini keeps cooking
Fresh off of earning November’s Rookie of the Month honors, Macklin Celebrini continued to cook. Not only did he assist on the game-winning goal in last night’s game, but he drew the penalty that led to that double minor power play.
#ALLCAPS Important penalty kill coming up. Big dive from Celebrini pic.twitter.com/pfd2DZlZyt
— x – Capitals Replays š (@capsreplays) December 4, 2024
The bloody nose forced Celebrini to take a seat to start the power play. He blinked away the tears that come naturally when your nose takes a hit, dried the blood and then jumped over the boards to help close out the period. He was also on the ice for the start of overtime, where he and Mikael Granlund assisted on the game-winning goal.
EKLUND ONE-TIMER FOR THE WIN š„ pic.twitter.com/7aSAZjqAsN
— Sharks on NBCS (@NBCSSharks) December 4, 2024
What makes the goal even sweeter is that Celebrini is setting records. According to the NHL, Celebrini’s point on the game winning goal ties former Shark Pat Falloon for the second longest point streak by a teen in SJ Sharks history. The 18-year-old is also entering Sidney Crosby territory.
Macklin Celebrini factored on the OT winner to tie Pat Falloon (5 GP in 1991-92) for the second-longest point streak by a teenager in @SanJoseSharks history ā a list led by Jeff Friesen (6 GP in 1994-95).#NHLStats: https://t.co/ObyqjT4xvS pic.twitter.com/6lw7B6e7I6
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 4, 2024
Credit to Blackwood
Fear the Fin would be remiss if it forgot the second star of the game, Blackwood. The goaltender stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced for a .964 save percentage and the win.
As you can see from Natural Stat Trick’s heat map in all situations, Blackwood handled the up close shots in high danger areas well.
It was enough to outduel Logan Thompson, who was almost equally as good on the Washington end. Thompson stopped 29 of 31 shots for a .935 save percentage.
Blackwood has a 6-8-3 record this season and has won his last two starts.
Scoring Summary San Jose Sharks at Washington Capitals Dec. 3, 2024
First Period
19:00 SJS Tyler Toffoli unassisted
Second Period
13:02 WSH 13:02 Nick Dowd from Martin Fehervary and Ivan Miroshnichenko
Third Period
No Scoring
Overtime
0:39 SJS William Eklund from Mikael Granlund and Macklin Celebrini on the power play
