The clock is ticking for the San Jose Sharks to get into a playoff position, and they will try to make up ground when they host the Vancouver Canucks in Saturday night’s home finale.
Saturday’s game marks the fourth and final meeting of the season between these division rivals. San Jose has won all three meetings this season, outscoring Vancouver 14-7 in the process.
It’s crunch time for the Sharks (37-34-7, 81 points), who sit just four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference standings. Unfortunately, they are coming off two straight losses after dropping both ends of a back-to-back, falling to division foes who are trying to lock up top playoff positions.
On Wednesday, Connor McDavid had a five-point night, including a hat trick, and the visiting Edmonton Oilers defense held the Sharks to just 14 shots on the evening. The following night, defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin scored the lone goal for San Jose in a 6-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
John Carlson got his first career hat trick on Thursday night for the Ducks, who rallied for three third-period goals against the visiting Sharks. San Jose didn’t get its first shot on goal until 13:12 and was outshot 10-5 in the first period. Anaheim outshot San Jose 30-19 on the night.
“It’s not good enough this time of the year,” Sharks forward Kiefer Sherwood said. “We can’t be outwilled or outworked. It’s unacceptable. It doesn’t matter if it’s a back-to-back.”
He continued: “The other team wanted it more, and same thing tonight. We have to learn from it, and we’ve got to look inwards here a little bit. We’re changing the standard. It’s not OK to lose, it’s not OK to lose battles.”
Meanwhile, the Canucks (22-48-8, 52 points) were one of the first teams eliminated from playoff contention. They could be spoilers for their Western Conference opponents, but have lost four straight games and nine of their last 10. Vancouver has been outscored 18-8 over their current skid, which includes a 4-1 loss to the Kings on Thursday.
Marcus Pettersson scored the lone goal for Vancouver to tie Thursday’s game 1-1 at 14:17 of the first period. Joel Armia put the Kings back in front at 15:48.
“I think (Canucks netminder Nikita Tolopilo) would have wanted that one back, I think,” Canucks head coach Adam Foote said. “It was 1-1, and they get the next one and we got frustrated.”
Tolopilo, who hasn’t won a game since March 12, made 22 saves in the loss.
“At 3-1 going into the second (period), it felt like we deserved more,” Foote said. “We were forechecking hard. We weren’t spending as much time in our end.”
“They capitalized on our mistakes,” Pettersson added. “We had good jump throughout the game. Played some good hockey. But they were lethal, capitalizing on when we gave up looks and easy goals against. (We’ve got to) keep building. We played some good hockey, but we’ve got to clean up the mistakes.”
