Rookie goalie, still looking for first win, shows promise
The Sharks’ original plan for goaltender Josef Korenar after they traded Devan Dubnyk to the Colorado Avalanche on April 10 was to give him a prolonged look at the NHL level to see how he would perform against elite-level competition.
At the moment, there doesn’t appear to be any reason for the Sharks to stray away from that idea.
Although Korenar is still looking for his first NHL win, he’s done enough, it would seem, to remain with the Sharks for the next three weeks as they play their final 10 games of the regular season.
Going into this weekend, Korenar has an .896 save percentage and 3.06 GAA in four appearances. Not sparkling numbers, but also not bad considering he made his NHL debut the night of April 10 and some of the leaky defense that’s been played in front of him.
Wednesday on the road against the explosive Vegas Golden Knights, Korenar stopped 35 of the 39 shots he faced in a 5-2 loss at TMobile Arena.
“It’s a good team over there, one of the better offensive teams in the league, and he made some big saves early to keep us in the game,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said of Korenar, 23. “I thought he got better as the game went on — obviously not good enough — but you can see that he felt more comfortable and looked more confident in net.
“It’s a good road start for him. We knew this would be a tough game in a tough building and he battled hard.”
Korenar was peppered with 19 shots in the first period, including two breakaways, and stopped 18 of them to give the Sharks a chance.
“In the first period, we gave (Vegas) way too many odd-man chances,” Sharks defenseman MarcEdouard Vlasic said. “(Korenar) stopped them all. Other than the first period, I thought it was pretty even. But he was outstanding.
“When we were beat, he was there to bail us out.”
There were signs of inexperience for Korenar, who probably was a little too aggressive on the Golden Knights’ go-ahead goal late in the second period, which saw Alex Tuch score his 17th of the season.
With no one around him as he stood beside the Sharks’ net, Tuch took a terrific pass from Shea Theodore and fired the puck into an open net to give Vegas a 3-2 lead with 50 seconds to go.
“You’re not going to play a perfect game against them, and they exposed us a little bit in some areas,” Boughner said. “It’s an opportunity for (Korenar) to have to battle, and I thought he stepped up.”
It would be tough for any goalie to come away with a win if their teams couldn’t score on a consistent basis. Wednesday’s loss marked the eighth time in nine games the Sharks have scored two goals or less. Their power play is 2 for 33 in 11 games this month.
It might not be long before Korenar, who is from the Czech Republic, plays again. Starting with Saturday’s game with the Minnesota Wild, the Sharks play five times in eight days, including back-to-back games against the Colorado Avalanche
in Denver on April 30 and May 1.
The Sharks will have some decisions to make this offseason as to how they want to proceed with their goaltending. Martin Jones has three more years on his contract, which has an average annual value of $5.75 million and appears likely to return.
So if that’s the case, will the Sharks bring in another experienced goalie on an expiring contract to compete with Jones for the No. 1 job, as they did with Dubnyk last offseason? Or do they count on Korenar, or Alexei Melnichuk, to be the backup?
Both goalies figure to be parts of the Sharks organi- zation for a while, but will either they be ready for that role next season if it’s given to them?
Right now, that’s not on Korenar’s mind. Instead of thinking about whether he’ll be with the Sharks for the rest of the season, he’s more concerned about the next practice.
“I’ve got to do my best in practices and in a game. It’s their choice if they keep me here or not,” Korenar said. “I’m trying to do my best to be here, because everyone wants to be here.”