San Jose Sharks (28-16-7 63pts) v. Washington Capitals (27-16-5 59pts)

Game Recap:

The San Jose Sharks would strike quickly to get the 1-0 lead over the Washington Capitals twelve seconds into the game. After that the Sharks would generate a few more opportunities in the Capitals zone, but it would be a rush into the Sharks zone that would see Tim Heed get called for hooking. The Capitals would only need 13 seconds of powerplay time as Alex Ovechkin would score to tie the game. The less than two minutes later, Chandler Stephenson would gain possession of the puck in the neutral zone, and then feed the puck to Andre Burakovsky who would roof it to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead. However, TJ Oshie would be called for tripping resulting in a powerplay for the Sharks, and just like the Capitals powerplay, the Sharks didn’t need a lot of time for Tomas Hertl to score and tie the game at two a piece. But the Capitals would respond as Ovechkin would steal the puck and get into the zone to pass it to Oshie to give the Capitals a 3-2 lead on a shot that had to be fought to be put in.

The Capitals would start the period short handed, but would kill the penalty. However, the Sharks would get on the board with Evander Kane’s 20th of the season. But two minutes later Evgeny Kuznetsov would score in a scramble around the Sharks net to regain the lead. Then it would be Ovechkin again as he would net his second of the game to give the Capitals a 5-3 lead after killing off a Lars Eller delay of game penalty. However, the Capitals would not enter the second intermission with their 2 goal lead intact as a 3 on 0 odd man rush would give Logan Couture the opportunity to score and shrink the Capitals lead to 1.

The third period would show both teams trading some powerplay opportunities, but it would be Ovechkin with the hat trick to regain the Capitals two goal lead. However, on a John Carlson holding penalty, Tomas Hertl would score his second of the game to keep the Sharks in this game. Then with one second left and with the goalie pulled, Evander Kane would score his second of the game with one second left on the clock to send this game to overtime.

To start overtime the Capitals would be buzzing with the opening trio of John Carlson, Tom Wilson, and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but it would not be enough as Tomas Hertl would score his third of the game to win this game for the Sharks and giving their 6th straight loss.

Lineups:

San Jose Sharks:

Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Melker Karlsson

Timo Meier – Logan Couture — Joe Pavelski

Evander Kane – Tomas Hertl – Joonas Donskoi

Lukas Radil – Barclay Goodrow – Kevin Labanc

Radim Simek — Brent Burns

Brenden Dillon – Tim Heed

Joakim Ryan – Justin Braun

Martin Jones

Aaron Dell

Scratched: Dylan Gambrell, Jacob Middleton

Injured: Erik Karlsson (lower body), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (upper body)

Washington Capitals:

Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – T.J. Oshie

Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov – Tom Wilson

Dmitrij Jaskin – Lars Eller – Brett Connolly

Chandler Stephenson – Travis Boyd – Andre Burakovsky

Dmitry Orlov – John Carlson

Michal Kempny – Matt Niskanen

Brooks Orpik – Jonas Siegenthaler

Braden Holtby

Pheonix Copley

Scratched: Nic Dowd, Madison Bowey, Devante Smith-Pelly

Injured: Christian Djoos (thigh)

First Period:

Sharks Goal – :12 – Joe Pavelski (27) from Timo Meier (26) and Brent Burns (45)

Sharks Penalty -10:28 – Tim Heed 2 minutes for Hooking

Capitals PPG – 10:41 – Alex Ovechkin (34) from Nicklas Backstrom (36) and TJ Oshie (10)

Capitals Goal – 12:11 – Andre Burakovsky (6) from Chandler Stephenson (5) and Travis Boyd (11)

Capitals Penalty – 13:46 – TJ Oshie 2 minutes for Tripping

Sharks PPG – 14:27 – Tomas Hertl (20) from Joe Pavelski (16) and Joe Thornton (15)

Capitals Goal – 15:19 – TJ Oshie (15) from Alex Ovechkin (20) and John Carlson (38)

Capitals Penalty – 18:46 – Matt Niskanen 2 minutes for Tripping

End of 1st – SJ – 2       WAS – 3

Shots              15                13

Faceoffs         10                11

Hits               06                  05

PP                 1/1                 1/1

Second Period:

Sharks Goal – :52 – Evander Kane (20) from Timo Meier (27) and Brent Burns (46)

Capitals Goal – 2:53 – Evgeny Kuznetsov (9) from Jakub Vrana (12) and Tom Wilson (10)

Capitals Penalty – 3:03 – Lars Eller 2 minutes for Delay of Game

Capitals Goal – 5:41 – Alex Ovechkin (35) from Nicklas Backstrom (37) and TJ Oshie (11)

Capitals Penalty – 11:45 – Dmitrij Jaskin 2 minutes for Hooking

Sharks Penalty – 12:34 Brent Burns 2 minutes for Tripping

Sharks Goal – 14:39 – Logan Couture (19) from unassisted

End of 2nd – SJ – 4        WAS – 5

Shots               28                 26

Faceoffs          24                 20

Hits                 10                  14

PP                   1/4                  1/2

Third Period:

Sharks Penalty – :53 – Evander Kane 2 minutes for Slashing

Capitals Penalty – 2:50 – Bench (Burakovsky) 2 minutes for Too Many Men

Capitals Goal – 5:52 – Alex Ovechkin (36) from Jakub Vrana (13) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (31)

Capitals Penalty – 8:49 – John Carlson 2 minutes for Holding

Sharks PPG – 10:02 – Tomas Hertl (21) from Joe Pavelski (17) and Logan Couture (27)

Sharks Goal – 19:59 – Evander Kane (21) from Tomas Hertl (23) and Joe Pavelski (18)

End of 3rd – SJ – 6         WAS – 6

Shots              41                   37

Faceoffs        32                    29

Hits               15                     25

PP                 2/6                    1/3

OT:

Sharks Goal – 1:48 – Tomas Hertl (22) from Logan Couture (28)

End of OT – SJ – 6         WAS – 6

Shots              43                   39

Faceoffs        34                    30

Hits               16                     25

PP                 2/6                    1/3

Next Up:

Washington (27-16-6 60pts) @ Toronto (29-17-2 60pts)

San Jose (29-16-7 65pts) v. Arizona (22-22-4 48pts)