SAN JOSE, Calif. – Another day goes by, another opportunity goes to waste for the San Jose Sharks.
Pretty soon, the Sharks are going to run out of chances to climb back into the West Division playoff picture.
The Sharks couldn’t overcome a dismal start to the first period as they gave up three early goals and were stymied by goalie Anthony Stolarz at the other end in a 4-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks at SAP Center on Monday.
The Sharks created a bushel of scoring opportunities in the first two periods, throwing 31 shots on the Ducks’ net. But Stolarz, in his third start of the season, finished with 44 saves in a stellar performance.
The Sharks have now been held to two goals or fewer in three of their past four games, and they fell to 1-3-0 on their had-to-have-it five-game homestand, which ends Wednesday with a rematch against the Ducks.
With the loss, the Sharks (18-19-4) remained four points back of the fourth-place St. Louis Blues in the division. The Arizona Coyotes stayed in fifth place as they lost to the Colorado Avalanche early Monday.
Still, the Sharks have just 15 games left, and their schedule only gets harder after Wednesday.
The Sharks start a four-game road trip later this week as they face the Minnesota Wild on Friday and Saturday, then travel to play the Vegas Golden Knights next Monday and Wednesday. Of the Sharks’ 15 remaining games, all but four are against teams that are presently in a playoff position.
Sharks goalie Martin Jones appeared to be shaken up in pregame warmups after he took a shot from Patrick Marleau in the collarbone area. Jones went down on the ice for a minute before he proceeded to the Sharks bench. He stayed there briefly before he went back to the Sharks’ dressing room.
Jones still started the game, his eighth straight in 13 days. But things didn’t get much better for him or the Sharks once the game began.
Some abysmal puck management and shaky defensive structure burned the Sharks in a wide open first period in which the two teams combined for 27 shots on net and three goals, all scored by Anaheim.
After two failed clearing attempts, Christian Jaros, playing in his third game in place of the injured Marc-Edouard Vlasic, had the puck tapped away from him by Ducks defenseman Josh Manson. Max Comtois fed it to Derek Grant, who passed back to Comtois for a tap-in goal at the 1:59 mark of the first period just as Jaros was skating back into the play.
Jaros and Simek were on the ice for all three Ducks goals in the first period, as Alexander Volkov scored the first of his two goals at the 8:12 mark, getting a stick on a Sam Carrick pass to the front of the net as he was being checked by Tomas Hertl.
The Ducks went up 3-0 at the 12:19 mark of the first. Adam Henrique carried the puck around the Sharks’ net and with Jones a bit slow to get over, fed a pass in front to an open Volkov, who tapped it in for his sixth goal of the season.
The Sharks knew this would be a critical homestand if they wanted to keep pace in the West Division playoff race, but it’s been a letdown so far.
The Sharks opened the five-game homestand with a 5-1 loss to the Ducks last Tuesday. They rebounded to beat Los Angeles 5-2 on Friday, but showed up flat the following night in what became a 4-2 loss to the Kings.
“We need to put our best foot forward and we don’t feel like we did that the last time we played the Ducks, we didn’t feel like we did that against L.A.,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said Monday morning.
“We don’t want to look back and say these are the games that cost us. We worked hard to get into this position, to take advantage of this part of our schedule, and by no means is there an easy game. But we need to show up and throw our ‘A’ game, and hopefully that’s good enough on more nights than not.”
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