Dell strong in goal as S.J. downs Flyers.
Goalie makes 22 saves in victory as Philadelphia drops its ninth straight
The Flyers’ Danick Martel looks away as the Sharks’ Chris Tierney celebrates with his goal. PHILADELPHIA >> Make it nine in a row.
The Sharks added to the Philadelphia Flyers (8-10-7) woes Tuesday, putting together one of their most complete games of the season to hand the home team its ninth consecutive loss, the squad’s longest losing streak since 2008.
Here’s what we learned as the Sharks (13-8-2) picked up a 3-1 win at the Wells Fargo
Center.
1. DONSKOI’S HEALTH IN QUESTION AFTER TAKING A HIT IN THE SECOND PERIOD >> With Aaron Dell, the Sharks have the goaltending depth to absorb Martin Jones’ day-to-day injury. Losing Joonas Donskoi for any extended period of time would be a significant setback for the offensively-starved squad.
Donskoi left Tuesday’s game after skating on a Sharks power play in the middle of the second period. Head coach Pete DeBoer said his second-leading goal scorer suffered a “mid-to-lower-body” injury after getting cross
checked.
The Finnish forward took a hit from Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg at 7:59 of the second.
“He got kind of cross checked,” the Sharks coach said, adding: “I won’t know (anything) until tomorrow.”
If Donskoi’s injury proves to be serious, it will be a major blow to the Sharks offense, which is struggling to produce goals this season, ranked 28th in the NHL (2.61 goals per game).
Among the players that DeBoer called out in training camp to help the team fill the Patrick Marleau void, no one has delivered more than Donskoi.
The 25-year-old Finn is second on the team in goals (seven), tied for fourth in points (12) and he entered the game with the squad’s best possession rating (58 percent).
Last week, he rejoined Logan Couture’s line and notched four points in five games, solidifying the Sharks top-six forward group which had been struggling to assert itself in Marleau’s absence.
Injuries played a role in Donskoi’s sophomore slump last season as he collected just 17 points in 61 games while fighting through shoulder and foot ailments.
In addition to Donskoi and Jones’ injuries, Joe Thornton is recovering from offseason knee surgery, Joe Pavelski is playing hurt and defenseman Tim Heed was a late scratch Tuesday because of an upper-body injury.
“It’s something that carried over from last game that we thought wouldn’t be an issue but is,” DeBoer said, explaining Heed’s absence from the lineup against the Flyers.
2. DELL CLEARS ANOTHER HURDLE >> Dell continues to clear every hurdle that’s put in his path.
After rising up from the ECHL to the AHL and then landing the Sharks backup goalie job as an undrafted commodity last fall, Dell made his first start as the Sharks No. 1 goalie Tuesday, opening the team’s road trip with a quality 22-save performance.
After surrendering a goal to Claude Giroux on the Flyers first shot just 48 seconds into the game, Dell shut the door in his typically unfazed
manner, reeling off 22 consecutive saves to improve his career save percentage to .929 and his career goalsagainst average to 2.02 in 29 NHL appearances.
“He’s done it every time we put him in there,” DeBoer said. “I didn’t know him at all until I got in the organization, and then we had that open competition for backup goalie last year, and every time we’ve put him in he’s gotten the job done.
“It’s a great luxury to have.”
Assuming that Jones isn’t available when the Sharks return to action Friday against the Florida Panthers, Dell will face yet another new challenge: starting back-toback games for the first time in his NHL career.
“I’ve got to treat it the same way,” Dell said. “Try and play it day by day and whenever he’s (Jones) back, he’s back. I’ve just got to do my job and give the team a chance to win in his absence.”
3. ‘THAT’S HOW WE PLAY’ >> The Sharks defense put together a textbook performance,
showing the Flyers why they’re leading the NHL in goals-against average (2.16) and shots against (28.7), and ranked second on the penalty kill (88.3 percent).
Other than the line of Giroux, Jake Voracek, Sean Couturier line, no other Flyers forward posted a possession rating of more than 50 percent. The Sharks played defense by tilting the ice toward the Flyers net, producing 34 shots on goal.
“That’s how we play,” Thornton said. “We play hard-stingy defense and that’s how we win games. That’s what we do.”
The defense was particularly airtight in the third as the Sharks improved to 9-0 when leading after two periods. The Sharks held the Flyers to just five shots in the frame, including just a single shot over the period’s first 17:04.
“The third was a really clean period,” DeBoer said. “To be able to play like that with the lead against a desperate team (was impressive).”