Alexander Wennberg scored at the 1:26 mark of overtime to give the San Jose Sharks a remarkable 5-4 win over the Utah Hockey Club on Monday as they ended their season-opening nine-game losing streak in unbelievable and historic fashion.
Down 4-1 with under five minutes left in regulation time, the Sharks scored three goals in 1:50 late in the third period to send the game into overtime.
Then, with the Sharks on a power play, Wennberg won a faceoff deep in the offensive zone and went straight to the Utah crease. Mikael Granlund then took the puck and fired it toward the net.
The shot was tipped, went off the end boards and right back to Wennberg, who roofed it over Utah goalie Connor Ingram for his first goal of the season.
“It’s been tough for sure,” Wennberg told reporters. “But, this is what we’ve been talking about — show character. We were down 4-1 and found a way to win the game.”
Wennberg was mobbed by his Sharks teammates right after the goal, as they poured off the bench to celebrate their first win of the season after an 0-7-2 start.“We deserved it more than anyone else,” winger Fabian Zetterlund said on the Sharks’ Audio Network after the game. “You can see in every guy’s eyes. Everyone wants it so, so bad, and we got it. I’m so happy.”
The win was the first in Sharks history when trailing by three or more goals with less than five minutes remaining in regulation time.
“No matter what the situation is, you can believe,” said Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky, who earned his win as an NHL head coach. “It’s not just a feeling. It’s in your mind, it’s in your heart, it’s in your soul. We can get that going here.”
Several of the Sharks’ top players played key roles in the comeback.
Granlund, the Sharks’ most consistent player this season, had a goal and two assists. Zetterlund scored two goals, defenseman Jake Walman had three assists, and Wennberg and Tyler Toffoli each scored a goal and an assist.
Just on Saturday, with their 7-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Sharks became the first team in NHL history to start two straight seasons with nine consecutive losses.
After the loss, defenseman Mario Ferraro issued a guarantee of sorts, saying, “Tomorrow is a new day. We’re going to get back at it, and we’re going to find ways to improve, and we’re going to get our first win in Utah.”
“I think we’ve believed in ourselves this whole time, and it’s been frustrating at times,” Toffoli said. “But it’s only one win, and we’ve got to build off of it. We’ve got to get better, keep grinding, keep working, keep improving as a group and having fun.
“I think that was the thing with (Sunday). In practice, we didn’t watch any of the Vegas game. We came, had fun, worked, and had a good outcome today.”
Warsofsky will undoubtedly remember this one for a while.
“The relief and the belief,” Warsofsky said. “We’ve got a group of guys in there that are going to believe a lot more now, and that’s what this is all about.
“You’ve got to believe that you can win a hockey game no matter the situation.”
The Sharks controlled parts of the first and second periods but weren’t getting rewarded, as they outshot Utah 26-19 through 40 minutes.
Then, with the Sharks down 4-1, Zetterlund, Granlund, and Tyler Toffoli all scored goals 1:50 apart — all with an extra attacker — late in the third period. Toffoli’s game-tying goal came with 2:42 left in regulation time when he gathered a deflected Jake Walman shot in the left circle and sent it the puck past a scrambling Ingram.
The Sharks started their rally with 4:32 left in the third period.
After a faceoff in the Utah zone, Granlund controlled the puck and fired a shot from just inside the blue line. After a scramble beside Ingram, Zetterlund collected the loose puck and scored his second of the game at the 15:28 mark.
The Sharks kept pressing and got another faceoff deep in the Utah zone. On a nearly identical play, Granlund took a pass from Walman and fired a shot that got past Ingram just 25 seconds after Zetterlund scored.
“We got one on the 6-on-5 there, and then, we just had fun, we just believed it,” Zetterlund said. “I talked to (Granlund) after the game, and we were laughing about it. He was just zipping the puck to the net.”
With the Sharks down by two after the first period, Zetterlund scored his first of the game and his fourth of the season on a solo rush into the offensive zone at the 9:12 mark of the second period, going forehand to backhand to beat Ingram.
But Utah got that goal back just 86 seconds later. After a Sharks turnover in their zone, Ian Cole got a shot on net that goalie Mackenzie Blackwood couldn’t control. The big rebound came right to an opportunistic Matias Maccelli, who beat Blackwood from in close to restore Utah’s two-goal lead.
Considering the Sharks’ offensive struggles, Utah, it seemed, more or less put the game away with 24 seconds left in the second period as defenseman Mikhail Sergachev scored an even-strength goal to put the Sharks in a 4-1 hole.
“We need to own it, and the leadership needs to own it as well,” Utah coach André Touigny said. “What happened there, it’s unacceptable — it’s embarrassing.”
The Sharks now start a five-game homestand, starting with Tuesday’s game with the Los Angeles Kings.