San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini (71) breaks past Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe (22) during first-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Monday, March 3, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP
The San Jose Sharks earned an unlikely and dramatic comeback victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.
The Sharks erased a two-goal deficit in the third period, killed off a penalty in overtime, and saw Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund both score goals in the shootout to earn a dramatic 3-2 win over the Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
Goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves in the win, including four in overtime, as the Sharks ended an eight-game losing streak.
“We’ve had a road trip where we’ve been in games and we’ve been relatively happy with it, and I think it’s just good to get a result tonight,” Toffoli told reporters. “We have a lot of fun in here and it’s one of those things where it (stinks) to lose but when we come to the rink and have fun and hang out outside of the rink, we’re for the most part always together, so it was fun (tonight).”
The Sharks allowed second period power play goals to John Tavares and Matthew Knies to fall behind 2-0, and Knies’ goal, with just 4.5 seconds left before intermission, looked like the dagger.
The Leafs entered Monday with a 27-0-0 record when leading after two periods, while the Sharks were 1-23-2 when trailing after 40 minutes.
But defenseman Jack Thompson got the Sharks back into the game. After Alexander Wennberg’s shot from the point went wide of the net, Thompson pounced on the loose puck and fired a shot from near the faceoff dot that got past Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz at the 2:23 mark of the third period.
At the midway point of the period, Wennberg drove the puck deep into the Toronto zone and around the Leafs net. Stolarz followed him but could not get back into position, leaving a wide open net for Toffoli, who took the pass from Wennberg and scored his 23rd of the season at the 10:10 mark.
“The biggest thing was I just felt like we were down on ourselves, and that can happen with where we are at, right?” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “The losses have piled up but we’ve been doing some pretty good things and we can’t feel bad for ourselves. It’s the National Hockey League.
“I just reminded them we had eight guys who had a lot of family and friends here to watch them and they came to watch 60 minutes, not 40, and my last message was it would be a (heck) of a story. Credit to the group, they dug in, kept competing and found a way to win.”
The Sharks shuffled their lines before the start of the third period. Will Smith and Zetterlund joined Macklin Celebrini, and Wennberg and William Eklund joined Toffoli’s line.
The Sharks held off the Leafs for the rest of the third period but forward Luke Kunin was assessed a hooking penalty at the end of regulation time. Georgiev made three saves on the penalty kill and also stopped shots by Mitch Marner, Matthews and Tavares in the shootout.
The Sharks, who had an 0-5-3 record since their last win on Jan. 27, knew they would have to play one of their best games Monday if they wanted to end their losing streak. The Atlantic Division-leading Leafs had won eight of their last nine games and, since the start of February, were the second-highest scoring team in the NHL, with an average of 4.33 goals per game.
“It was amazing,” Wennberg said. “It’s been a few games where we’ve been really close to winning, so right now to find a way to win, being down a few goals and bouncing back, it’s a great feeling for the team.”
The game was the first in Toronto for a handful of Sharks rookies, including Celebrini, Smith and Thompson.
“When I was a kid, I dreamed about scoring goals out here,” said Thompson, who grew up in Courtice, Ontario and had a few dozen family and friends in attendance. “So, it was pretty cool to do it, I think I blacked out a bit but it was special.”
LINEUP CHANGE: Carl Grundstrom re-entered the Sharks lineup Monday after he had been scratched the previous two games. Grundstrom took the spot of Klim Kostin, who had an assist in the Sharks’ losses to Montreal and Ottawa as he averaged 8:15 in ice time.
THRUN ON IR: The Sharks placed defenseman Henry Thrun on injured reserve Monday morning and recalled San Jose Barracuda captain Jimmy Schuldt from the AHL.
Thrun left Thursday’s game against the Canadiens early in the third period with an upper body injury. Thrun also missed the final five minutes of the first period of the game, which San Jose lost 4-3 in overtime. Thrun, 23, will have to miss at least the rest of the Sharks’ road trip, which ends with games against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday and the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Thrun has 10 points and is averaging 16:59 in ice time in 51 games this season. Since the Sharks traded Ceci to the Stars, Thrun had been playing on the Sharks’ top defense pair alongside Jake Walman and in the last six games, averaged 18:07 in ice time.
Schuldt, signed to a one-year, two-way contract by the Sharks in July, has 17 points in 53 games with the Barracuda this season.
Schuldt, 29, has played in one NHL game in his career. It was with the Vegas Golden Knights on April 6, 2019, in his first appearance as a professional after four seasons at St. Cloud State. In six seasons in the AHL, playing with Chicago, Henderson, Rochester, Coachella Valley and San Jose, Schuldt has 125 points in 343 games.
DUEHR ON WAIVERS: The Sharks placed winger Walker Duehr on waivers on Monday. If another NHL team does not claim him by Tuesday at 11 a.m. (PST), he’ll be assigned to the Barracuda.
Duehr, 27, was waived by the Calgary Flames on Jan. 21 and claimed by the Sharks the next day. In eight games with the Sharks, Duehr had two goals and averaged 8:49 in ice time.
The move clears a roster spot for the Sharks, one they could potentially use to activate forward Nikolai Kovalenko off of IR. Kovalenko (upper body) has not played since Jan. 30 but joined the Sharks last Wednesday when the team was in Montreal.
Originally published at Curtis Pashelka