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Quick bites: Sharks sweep season series with Blues

Posted on by Erika Towne
William Eklund scored a hat trick. Former Jr. Shark Devin Cooley stopped 34 of 36 shots for his first NHL win. The Sharks beat the Blues 3-2 in overtime.

In this miserable season of Sharks’ hockey, Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues should bring a smile to your face. In it, local kid Devin Cooley claimed his first career NHL win in front of his friends, family and his hometown crowd. Young William Eklund, one of the first building blocks in the Sharks’ journey back to the postseason, announced his NHL arrival with a hat trick that was capped off with an overtime game-winning goal. And the Sharks swept the season series with the St. Louis Blues, driving another nail into the coffin that is the Blues’ postseason dreams.

Cooley cool and collected

Cooley had performed well in his first two NHL starts but hadn’t received much support from his team. In this game, he took it up a notch and bailed the Sharks out of a couple of jams early in the game.

There was the four-minute double minor that Calen Addison took at the end of the first period. Addison also received a game misconduct and an abuse of the officials penalty, resulting in 24 total penalty minutes. During the ensuing Blues’ power play, Cooley stopped all the shots that he faced.

In fact, Cooley stopped 34 of 36 shots during three NHL periods and overtime. He finished the night with a .944 save percentage and 1.88 goals against average. That’s pretty good, considering that Natural Stat Trick reported 3.31 expected goals against.

Cooley also killed off a 4-on-3 power play in overtime, allowing for Eklund’s game-winner a little later in the overtime.

Mom was in the crowd, wearing Cooley’s Jr. Sharks jersey. She was in tears as Eklund scored the game-winner. Another family member was next to her, wearing a Cooley Milwaukee Admirals jersey.

Dad was down by the glass with his own Cooley jersey.

When asked after the game what it was like to win his first NHL game at home, Cooley was all smiles.

He elaborated in the postgame media scrum.

“It’s such an unbelievable feeling,” Cooley said, according to ESPN. “If you would have told me two months ago that I’d be sitting here in my hometown and talking to you guys after my first NHL win, I would have been like, ‘You guys are crazy. Not a chance.’ It’s insane. I feel so good right now.”

The win carves out a little place in NHL history for Cooley. The 26-year-old is now the first California-born goalie to win for any California-based NHL franchise.

Congrats Devin Cooley and your family!

Eklund gets some new headwear

It’s tough when a first-career hat trick is the secondary story in a postgame report, but that’s the case with Eklund’s three-goal day.

Eklund, who went through a goal-scoring slump a little over a month ago, lit the lamp three times on Saturday afternoon at the Tank.

Eklund’s first two goals came on the power play. The first was just the way the Sharks likely drew it up in practice. Work the puck around the top and then get a guy clear for the one-timer.

The second was simply hard work in the front of the net, specifically by Thomas Bordeleau who has proven to be very scrappy in his most recent callup from the Barracuda.

Bordeleau is in the process of falling backward when he got his stick on the puck and shot it at the net. While the young forward only received the secondary assist on the goal, he did a large portion of the work to make sure the play stayed alive.

Graf impactful in his NHL debut

Finally, the newest member of the Sharks, Collin Graf made his NHL debut. Graf’s family was in the crowd to see his first NHL game.

While they didn’t get a chance to celebrate a first NHL goal, Graf was still an integral part of the team’s win. As Hockey Stat Cards shows, even though he did not register a point in the game, Graf was one of the more impactful forwards on the ice. Specifically because of his defensive play.

During the broadcast, the crew commented on some of the good defensive plays Graf made. He was strong on the backcheck and in the Sharks’ defensive zone.

Natural Stat Trick reports that Graf had 13:36 of ice time and 21 shifts. He played three shifts for about 1:58 of ice time on the power play.

All and all, it was a solid outing for the young forward.

Highlight of the night Blues at Sharks April 6, 2024

Of course, the highlight of the night was watching Eklund score his game-winning goal. Eklund picked the corner and was thinking shoot all the way.

The hats on hat day came raining down and Eklund grabbed one for himself. That smile…holy cow. Eklund ran through it all postgame.

Jordan Kyrou and Brayden Schenn scored for the Blues in the third period. The Blues are now seven points outside of a wild card spot with five games to play.

The Sharks are back on the ice this afternoon against the Arizona Coyotes.

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