Karlsson scores in OT as Sharks stay strong on trip
Erik Karlsson scored at the 39-second mark of overtime to give the Sharks a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday.
Karlsson and Timo Meier went in on a 2-on-1 into the Islanders’ zone early into the extra session. Karlsson made an initial saucer pass to Meier, who had the puck go off his stick and into behind the Islanders net. But he fed it back to Karlsson, who beat Ilya Sorokin for his fifth goal of the season as the Sharks improved to 3-0-0 on this five-game road trip.
Adin Hill made 23 saves in regulation time as he made his first start since Nov. 20 when San Jose lost 4-0 to the Washington Capitals.
The Sharks barely averted a disaster as Meier had what looked like a kneeon-knee collision with Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech midway through the third period.
Meier was slow to get up after the collision as he made his way to the Sharks’ bench, but he was out on the ice for his next shift.
New York opened the scoring just 64 seconds into the first period on a goal by Mat Barzal, who beat Hill high blocker side with a shot from the faceoff dot to the left of the Sharks’ net.
The Sharks got that goal back with 10:50 to go in the first, as Nick Bonino scored his third in five games off a pretty pass from Jonathan Dahlen just after a goaltender interference to Jean-gabriel Pageau had expired.
The Sharks outshot the Islanders 27-17 through two periods. Sorokin had 15 saves in the second period and stopped six shots on three Sharks’ power plays in the first 40 minutes.
Hill, whose last victory came Nov. 9 in Calgary, stopped 16 of 17 shots through two periods.
The Sharks lost Jonah Gadjovich to injury early in the first period.
Gadjovich was skating out to the blue line inside the Sharks’ defensive zone when he blocked a shot from Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson. The puck appeared to go off the inside of Gadjovich’s left leg, and he struggled to put any weight on the leg before he fell to the ice.
Gadjovich remained down for several seconds as he was tended to by head athletic trainer Ray Tufts. Again, as he was helped off the ice by his teammates, he was unable to place any weight on the leg.
Hill was making just his second start in the last nine games as James Reimer received the bulk of the work. In five games in November, Hill was 1-3-0 with a pedestrian .901 save percentage and 2.92 goals-against average.
Gadjiovich, who was claimed off waivers by San Jose from the Vancouver Canucks before the start of the regular season, was playing his 13th game for the Sharks. He has one assist and has averaged 9:58 of ice time per game.
Hill, though, came on in relief of Reimer in the Sharks’ 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 26 and stopped all 16 shots he faced in 26 minutes. For the season, Hill had a 4-5-0 record, a 2.94 goals against average and a .897 save percentage in 10 games.
NOTE: The Sharks recalled defenseman Nicolas Meloche and assigned Santeri Hatakka to the Barracuda. Hatakka’s last NHL game was Nov. 18 in St. Louis, as he had been a healthy scratch for the last six games.
“He wants to play and he understands that he got some opportunity here, and we told him some of the things that he could work on,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said of Hatakka before Thursday’s game. “But he’s happy to just get back to playing and getting back into game shape.”