San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Senators topple Sharks to spoil Karlsson return
On the occasion of Erik Karlsson’s return to Ottawa, it was a former Shark who stood out.
Mikkel Boedker had a goal and three assists, Craig Anderson stopped 36 shots and the Senators beat their former captain and San Jose 6-2 on Saturday, sending the Sharks to their fourth straight loss.
The Senators have three former Sharks on their roster with Boedker, Chris Tierney and Dylan DeMelo.
“It was a lot of fun out there,” Boedker said. “We played really hard as a unit, I think. There was three of us in here playing against our old squad and everybody seems to rally behind that, so it was a good feeling in the room before, and definitely on the ice I thought we played really well.”
Ben Harpur scored his first NHL goal, and Ryan Dzingel, Mark Stone, Magnus Paajarvi and Bobby Ryan also scored as the Senators won their third straight.
Joe Thornton and Barclay Goodrow scored for the Sharks. Martin Jones made 21 saves. San Jose is 0-3-1 on its five-game trip, which ends Sunday in Montreal.
“There’s no doubt we’re chasing the game,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think there’s a little bit of a confidence issue when you’re losing some games like that. You might call it urgency. I would call it a little bit unconfident. We need to find a way to get that swagger back.”
Karlsson was playing his first game in Ottawa since he was traded to San Jose in the offseason. The two-time Norris Trophy winner received thunderous applause from the crowd of 17,531 during his video tribute, shown on the scoreboard at the first TV timeout. He acknowledged the crowd with a wave from the ice.
“I had a lot of fun out there even though this was not a great game at all and I’m not happy by any means,” Karlsson said. “There’s a lot of good memories that I have from this rink. I was drafted here, spent pretty much my entire career here so a lot of positive things, so it was fun to see and I was happy I was able to play in front of these guys again and these fans and everything. They did a good job and I thank them for that. It was very kind of them.”
While the Senators downplayed the reunion, they said it was strange to see Karlsson on the other side.
“It was different,” Stone said. “What are we, 27 games in? I think it would have been a little different had we played him right away, but we’re pretty used to not having him around so it wasn’t
that different.”
Other games: Alex Radulov scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period after Jamie Benn scored midway through the third for visiting Dallas in a 2-1 win over Vancouver . ... Casey Cizikas scored the tie-breaking goal in the third period as the New York Islanders beat visiting Columbus 3-2 . ... Nazem Kadri broke a tie with 3:20 to play and Zach Hyman scored twice in Toronto’s 5-3 victory in Minnesota . ... Brayden Point scored a power-play goal 3:12 into overtime and visiting Tampa Bay overcame a 4-1 deficit to beat Florida 5-4 in overtime . ... Dale Weise scored in the first minute of the third period and Philadelphia held on to win 4-2 at Pittsburgh . ... Mark Scheifele scored his second goal of the game at 4:43 of overtime, tucking the puck past Keith Kinkaid, to lift Winnipeg to a 4-3 victory at New Jersey . ... Shea Weber and Artturi Lehkonen each scored twice and Montreal beat the visiting New York Rangers 5-2 to snap a five-game losing streak . ... Eeli Tolvanen scored his first NHL goal and added an assist to lead host Nashville to a 5-2 victory over Chicago . ... Frans Nielsen scored his first goal of the season and Jimmy Howard made 37 saves, lifting Detroit to a 4-2 win in Boston . ... Clayton Keller and Richard Panik each had a goal and an assist and Arizona scored four second-period goals to cruise to a 6-1 win over visiting St. Louis . ... Connor McDavid and Ryan Spooner scored for Edmonton as the Oilers handled visiting Vegas 2-1.
Nylander signs: William Nylander’s contract impasse with Toronto ended with the restricted free agent signing a six-year, $41.77 million deal just before Saturday’s deadline.