Sharks’ losing streak hits 5 games
The San Jose Sharks couldn’t keep up with the St. Louis Blues on Thursday in a game between two teams looking to snap long losing streaks.
The Sharks allowed a goahead goal by Calle Rosen at the 8:20 mark of the third period and couldn’t recover in a 5-3 loss to the Blues at Enterprise Center, extending their losing streak to five games.
Torey Krug, Jordan Kyrou, and Brandon Saad all scored to help snap an eight-game losing streak for the Blues, who hadn’t won since Oct. 22 in Edmonton.
The Sharks once again received productive nights from their top players, as Timo Meier, Tomas Hertl, and Logan Couture all scored and Erik Karlsson and Kevin Labanc each had two assists.
Couture’s goal came at the 1:26 mark of the third period, as he redirected a Karlsson shot past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington to tie the game 3-3.
On the Blues’ winning goal, Thomas fed a pass
through Luke Kunin back to the point, where Rosen scored with a shot that got past Kaapo Kahkonen for a 4-3 lead.
Kahkonen finished with 28 saves as his record fell to 1-4-1 this season. James Reimer is slated to start Friday when the Sharks continue their road trip against the Dallas Stars.
The Sharks allowed the first goal as Krug scored his second of the season at the 2:30 mark of the first period, finding an open spot from a sharp angle to beat Kahkonen.
The Blues threatened to take a two-goal lead after Mario Ferraro was called for slashing at the 7:02 mark. But the Sharks killed off the penalty, thanks in part to two saves from Kahkonen, and gathered a bit of momentum going forward.
On the Sharks’ first goal, Karlsson fired a puck on net from inside the blue line that went off Labanc’s stick and off Meier, who deflected the puck to the left side of the crease, where it went off Justin Faulk’s glove and into the Blues net.
The last time Meier scored in four consecutive regular season games was March 1-9, 2019, when he scored five times in four games as the Sharks beat Colorado, Chicago, Montreal and St. Louis as part of a six-game win streak.
Karlsson and Meier now both have six-game point streaks. Karlsson’s 21 points in 15 games to start a season set a new team record for defensemen. The only other Sharks player to have as many points after 15 games to start a season as Karlsson was Patrick Marleau, who had 21 points to start the 2009-2010 season.
The Sharks were coming off a 1-2-3 homestand in which they lost the last three games in a shootout and two other games by a combined three goals. In all five losses, they led or were tied in the third period but only came away with three of a possible 10 points.
The Sharks came into Thursday with a 3-2-2 record in games in which they’ve led or have been tied in the third period. For the season, San Jose, before Thursday, has been outscored 15-7 in the final 20 minutes.