William Eklund scored a power-play goal 39 seconds into overtime as the San Jose Sharks earned an impressive 2-1 road win over the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Tuesday.
With Capitals forward Tom Wilson serving double-minor for high-sticking Macklin Celebrini, and with the Sharks enjoying a 4-on-3 man advantage, Eklund took a pass from Mikael Granlund and one-timed a shot that got past Capitals goalie Logan Thompson for his fifth goal of the season.
Tyler Toffoli also scored and Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 27 saves as the Sharks improved to 2-0-0 on this six-game road trip, which continues Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Sharks also play the Florida Panthers on Saturday, the Carolina Hurricanes on Dec. 10, and the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 12. San Jose beat the Seattle Kraken 4-2 on Saturday.
The Sharks had a 1-0 lead after the first period.
After a Sharks line change, Toffoli took control of the puck in the neutral zone, carried it into the Capitals end and beat goalie Logan Thompson with a wrist shot high blocker side for his 10th goal od the season.
The goal snapped a seven-game goal drought for Toffoli, whose last goal came in a Nov, 18 game against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Sharks were allowed to take the lead after a solid first period from Blackwood, who had 16 saves in the opening 20 minutes.
The Capitals tied the game at the 13:02 mark of the second period. After Nic Dowd won a faceoff in the Sharks’ zone, he peeled off and found a quiet spot in the slot araa. The Sharks lost sight of Dowd, who one-timed a shot past Blackwood for his seventh goal of the season.
Blackwood is coming off a solid 36-save performance on Saturday when the Sharks beat the Kraken 4-2 for their third win in four games. In his last 11 games before Tuesday, going back to Oct. 28, Blackwood was 5-5-1 with a .907 save percentage.
The Capitals came into Tuesday as the NHL’s highest-scoring team with an average of 4.21 goals per game. They had also scored a league-leading 69 goals during 5-on-5 play this season.
The Sharks had scored 22 goals in their last four games before playing the Capitals and are averaging 2.89 goals per game, 19th most in the NHL.
SPECIAL GAME: Tuesday’s game was extra meaningful for Ryan Warsofsky, who was coaching against Washington’s bench-boss Spencer Carbery as an NHL head coach for the first time. Warsofsky’s first coaching job in professional hockey came in 2013 when he worked on Carbery’s staff with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. The two coached together for three years.
ROSTER CHANGE: The Sharks made one lineup change for Tuesday’s game as veteran forward Carl Grundstrom dressed in place of rookie Ethan Cardwell, who was a healthy scratch. Grundstrom went five games without a point before he was healthy scratched for both games of the Sharks’ home-and-home series with the Seattle Kraken last week.
Cardwell, who was recalled from Barracuda last week after Barclay Goodrow was placed on injured reserve, played in both games against the Kraken and scored his first career NHL goal in Friday’s 8-5 Sharks win at SAP Center.
Grundstrom skated on the Sharks’ fourth line with Nico Sturm and Ty Dellandrea.
VLASIC NEARS RETURN: Warsofsky reiterated Tuesday that Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic is nearing a return and is on track to be available to play again by the end of the team’s road trip next week. Vlasic, who missed all of training camp and every game so far this season with an upper body injury, has been skating on a regular basis with the Sharks over the last several days.
Vlasic is in his 19th NHL season and has played in 1,296 career NHL games, all with the Sharks.
The Sharks would have to create a roster spot for Vlasic once he is deemed ready to be activated. The easiest approach for the Sharks would be to return defenseman Jack Thompson, who does not require waivers, to the Barracuda of the AHL.
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