Celebrini’s on a historic run, but there’s another reason to believe in the Sharks

It was starting to become evident with the way they had been playing in fresh games beating several playoff-caliber teams that things were going to be a bit different this season for the San Jose Sharks Now after six seasons of finishing out of the playoff race and two years at the bottom of the NHL standings Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky has made it official The rebuild is over in San Jose Trailing by a goal and looking lifeless through the first two periods the Sharks got a power play goal from Will Smith an overtime goal from Collin Graf and tremendous goaltending from Yaroslav Askarov to earn a - comeback win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday Now the Sharks - - will be looking for their fifth straight success on Thursday when they play the Calgary Flames in the second match of a three-game road trip The Sharks may not have necessarily deserved the two points on Tuesday or the win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday But good teams find tactics and the Sharks are now on their first four-game win streak since the start of the - season I think we just knew we needed to be better Smith stated reporters Every guy starting with our line we had to be better Askarov keeping us in that a - challenge after after playing like that was pretty good for us That helped us get it done By going - - since a - loss to the Los Angeles Kings the Sharks entered Wednesday in a playoff spot Who knows how long they can stay there but it s safe to say that their days of taking whatever moral victories they can get while being the NHL s doormats are over Ostensibly in years past we punted this meeting and just moved on and took the loss Warsofsky stated Whether it s - or whatever it was that s over We re done punting games We re done saying we re competitive We re trying to win hockey games Three takeaways from Tuesday s match ASKAROV S BRILLIANCE Can the Sharks stay in the mix for a playoff spot this season If they continue to get goaltending like this there s no question Askarov made saves through a busy first two periods and finished with as he won for the fifth time in his last six starts In that time Askarov has a save percentage After being near the bottom in goals saved above expected per minutes after the first two weeks of the season Askarov in that category now ranks ninth among the goalies who have played at least games with a mark of per moneypuck com The Sharks also went -for- on the penalty kill aided by Askarov s five saves He s as much a reason to believe in this Sharks group as any Warsofsky noted the Sharks first two periods were arguably our worst two first periods of the year But we identified a way and that s the bulk major thing It s a hard league to win in so we can t dwell on it There are things we have to get better at We didn t have our legs at all Askarov was outstanding Our penalty kill even though we gave up one was really good He was the reason why we had a chance CELEBRINI FINDS GRAF FOR THE OT WINNER pic twitter com YjhVJuiYNo B R Open Ice BR OpenIce November Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic have now combined to allow just one goal in each of their last four games Nedeljkovic though had to leave the Sharks after Tuesday s championship to tend to a personal matter in San Jose and it s unclear if he ll be able to meet the Sharks in Calgary by Thursday Regardless the Sharks will likely go back to Askarov on Thursday as they look for a fifth straight win which hasn t happened since Nov CLUTCH CELEBRINI The Wild became only the second squad this season after the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct to hold Macklin Celebrini without a shot on net as they smothered him during -on- play But the -year-old wunderkind still made the meeting s two biggest plays On the game-tying goal Celebrini with Wild defenseman David Jiricek serving a penalty for slashing Smith entered the Minnesota zone and passed to William Eklund who expeditiously exposed Tyler Toffoli near the top of the circles Toffoli then sent the puck to Celebrini who one-timed it over to Smith for what was essentially a tap-in goal That gave the weary Sharks a big boost In overtime Celebrini was on the ice for almost two minutes before he took a pass from defenseman Sam Dickinson and entered the Wild zone He then sent a perfect pass that went through the legs of Jonas Brodin to Graf who went forehand to backhand to beat Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson for the win Related Articles Winger s overtime goal lifts Sharks to comeback win over Minnesota Wild Sharks-Wild preview Eklund s back what channel is showing Tuesday s championship Joe Thornton amid laughs and tears joins hockey immortals in Hall of Fame Surging Sharks set to begin road trip with scoring winger nearing return Dare to dream Sharks utter P word after another stirring mastery Celebrini is now tied for second in the NHL with points with of those points coming in just seven road games Per the Associated Press his points through the first games of a season are tied for the second the bulk in NHL history by a teenager Wayne Gretzky had in - and Sidney Crosby also had in - Both of those players by the way won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL s MVP If Celebrini can get the Sharks to the playoffs he ll definitely be in the Hart conversation this season WENNBERG LINE Despite Celebrini s heroics the Sharks best line during -on- play on Tuesday was the second line of Eklund Alexander Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev The trio combined for eight of the Sharks shots on goal outchanced their opponents - per Natural Stat Trick and created six high-danger chances Not only that but they also helped silence the Wild s top line of Kirill Kaprizov Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello at even strength