Gabriel earns kudos for major scrap
Seemingly from the moment he signed with the San Jose Sharks in November, winger Kurtis Gabriel had waited for an opportunity to go toe-to-toe with Vegas Golden Knights tough guy Ryan Reaves.
It didn’t happen in the initial meeting between the Sharks and Golden Knights on Feb. 13 when Gabriel was inserted into the lineup for the first time this season. So during pregame warmups Friday at SAP Center, Gabriel, in his second appearance, made sure he got a chance to speak with Reaves face-to-face.
The two had what appeared from a distance to be a civil, matter-of-fact conversation.
“I basically just had to earn his attention enough to get a fight there,” Gabriel said. “I guess he didn’t think I did in the first game and I guess he deemed that it was time tonight.”
It happened right at the start of the third period, as Gabriel and Reaves dropped
the gloves in a spirited tilt between two of the league’s true heavyweights.
Reaves may have had the edge in the scrap, as he connected with a right hand to Gabriel’s cheek just before the fight ended. But to the Sharks, though, that didn’t matter.
They were able to feed off the energy created by the fight. Even though Alex Tuch scored just 24 seconds after Reaves and Gabriel fought to give the
Golden Knights a two-goal lead, the Sharks still used it as a rallying point, getting goals from Logan Couture and Kevin Labanc to tie the game 4-4.
The Golden Knights won the game 5-4 in overtime on Max Pacioretty’s goal. But the Sharks showed resilience, coming back from three- and two-goal deficits.
“I know they scored right after, but we had a sense of togetherness on the bench, and we never stopped attacking,”
Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “It didn’t matter that they got that fourth goal. We had (time) at that point that we were determined to find a way to tie the game up and get a point and try and get two in overtime.”
“(Gabriel) steps up huge for us the start of the third and fights Reaves,” Couture said. “Obviously they got one right away, but I thought the energy for the rest of the third period from that fight was in our favor.”
It’s been well documented that Reaves has played the perfect antagonist to Evander Kane, doing what he can to get the San Jose power forward off his game.