Sharks find yet another way to lose as skid reaches eight

The Sharks’ Will Smith scores against Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark during the third period of Saturday night’s 5-3 loss in Ottawa. JUSTIN TANG — THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP

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By Curtis Pashelka

cpashelka@bayareanewsgroup.com

The Sharks caught a bad break in the third period of their game against the host Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.

Oh, they still made mistakes in the final 20 minutes, such as taking a delay-of-game penalty to set up a 5-on-3 goal for the Senators or making a bad change, which led to another Ottawa goal.

But with the game still tied early in the third period, a Ridly Greig shot into the Sharks’ zone took a weird carom off the boards. The puck then went to the front of an open Sharks net, after goalie Vitek Vanecek left his crease to play the Greig pass.

That left an open net for Tim Stützle, who scored his 19th goal of the season, giving the Senators the lead for good as they handed the Sharks a 5-3 loss at Canadian Tire Centre.

The Sharks allowed consecutive goals to Brady Tkachuk, Stützle, and David Perron as their third-period foibles continued in what became their eighth straight loss. Perron’s goal at the 8:31 mark of the third period, which became the game-winner, came after the Sharks made a bad line change.

Will Smith scored a power play goal for the Sharks, their third of the game, with 1:27 left in regulation time to cut Ottawa’s lead to 4-3. But Michael Amadio scored an empty net goal with 1:00 left to seal the win for the Senators, who swept the season series with San Jose.

Tyler Toffoli and Timothy Liljegren also scored power play goals for the Sharks, with Liljegren’s goal at the 9:47 mark of the second period giving San Jose a 2-1 lead.

The Sharks carried that lead into the third period. But with Mario Ferraro (roughing) and Collin Graf (delay of game, puck over glass), a shot by Tkachuk appeared to go off the skate of Marc-Edouard Vlasic before it got past Vanecek 1:26 into the third period.

The Sharks now have a 9-7-4 record in games in which they held a lead after two periods and an 0-2-2 record on this seven-game road trip.

The Sharks took a one-goal lead into the third period after scoring a pair of power play goals.

After taking a pass from Smith, Toffoli sent a pass to the front of the net intended for Macklin Celebrini. But the puck went off Jake Sanderson’s skate and past Senators goalie Linus Ullmark, tying the game 1-1 at the 5:17 mark.

The Sharks took the lead 4:30 later. Klim Kostin, a new addition to the Sharks’ second power play unit, took control of the puck to the side of the Senators’ net, and sent it to Alex Wennberg near the boards. Wennberg then sent the puck to Liljegren, whose shot from inside the blue line got through traffic and past Ullmark for his fifth goal of the season.

The Sharks outshot the Senators 12-8 in the first period but still trailed by a goal.

The Sharks dominated the first few minutes, outshooting the Senators 9-1 before Matthew Highmore was called for holding San Jose forward Klim Kostin. The Sharks had two shots on goal with the man advantage before they turned the puck over in the Ottawa zone, leading to a breakaway for Shane Pinto, who beat Vanecek for a 1-0 lead at the 11:05 mark of the first.

Vanecek was coming off a 33-save performance against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, and entered Saturday with a 3-9-3 record and an .882 save percentage in 17 games this season.

THRUN OUT >> The Sharks were without Henry Thrun on Saturday. Thrun left Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens early in the third period with an upper-body injury.