Canucks score 4 in 3rd period, prevail in San Jose
Add Tomas Hertl to the Sharks’ list of walking wounded.
Hertl sustained an apparent right leg injury in the first period of San Jose’s 52 loss to the Canucks at SAP Center on Wednesday night.
“That’s not something you like to see,” Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “He’s been playing good for us lately. He’s a big part of this team, especially with (Logan Couture) out.”
Hertl scored the first goal of the game at 4:15 of the first period. His onetimer from the right circle off a rebound beat Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom, who was outstanding with 38 saves.
The goal was Hertl’s 16th of the season, and his 36th point. He is one point behind Karlsson for the team lead.
The Sharks are now missing their top two centers: Couture and Hertl. Couture is sidelined with a left ankle fracture sustained Jan. 7 at St. Louis. Couture was expected to miss approximately six weeks.
“I haven’t seen or heard what happened so I don’t know what the prognosis is,” Karlsson said of Hertl, who was unavailable afterward. “Hopefully it’s nothing severe and it’s only a precaution.”
The Pacific Divisionleading Canucks stormed back from a 21 deficit to score four times in the third period and win their fourth straight game. San Jose lost for the third time in four games.
“No fault on the effort,” Sharks interim head coach Bob Boughner said. “We gave ourselves a chance and couldn’t finish it off in the third period.”
Jake Virtanen broke a 22 tie with a powerplay goal at 7:00 on the second half of a double minor after MarcEdouard Vlasic highsticked and drew blood on Vancouver defenseman Oscar Fantenberg.
Brandon Sutter scored 59 seconds later for a twogoal lead. Vancouver tied it 2:36 into the final period when defenseman Tyler Myers beat a screened Martin Jones with his fifth goal of the season.
Hertl was Couture’s replacement for last weekend’s NHL AllStar Game, where he scored five goals in the twogame tournament, including the gamewinner for the Pacific Division in its 54 win over the Atlantic.
Hertl missed four games from Nov. 21 through Nov. 27 when he sustained an ankle injury. Hertl, 26, too, has sustained a major injury to each knee early in his career that required surgery and extensive rehab.
Hertl’s rookie season was cut short after 37 games when he had tears to his right medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments repaired as a result of a hit by Los Angeles forward Dustin Brown. Hertl required the same surgery on his left MCL and PCL after the 201516 season that limited him to 49 games in 201617.
“He’s a huge part of this team,” Sharks forward Barclay Goodrow said. “But we’ve dealt with that all year. When one guys goes down, another guy steps up.”
Sharks defenseman Brent Burns broke a 11 tie at 5:57 of the second period with his 10th goal of the season. From the right point, he onetimed a feed from Joe Thornton past Markstrom.
After Hertl gave the Sharks the early lead, Vancouver tied the game before the first intermission when rookie defenseman Quinn Hughes scored his sixth goal with a screened slap shot from the blue line at 11:08.
“I think the game was there for us. We just didn’t get it done,” Goodrow said.
Briefly: Thornton is two points shy of 1,500 for his career. … Forward Antti Suomela and defenseman Tim Heed were healthy scratches.