Collin Graf’s overtime goal gives Sharks comeback win over Minnesota Wild

Collin Graf scored at the mark of overtime to lead the San Jose Sharks to a dramatic - comeback win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena Graf s goal came on an odd-man rush as he took a pass from Macklin Celebrini and made a forehand to backhand move to beat Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson for his second goal of the season Graf s goal came after Will Smith scored on the power play at the mark of the third period to tie the competition - On the goal Tyler Toffoli sent a diagonal pass across the middle of the ice in the Wild end to Celebrini who sent it back across the ice to Smith whose shot on net went through the pads of Gustavsson for his seventh goal of the season The Sharks have now won four straight games for the first time since the start of the - season when they began the year - - Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov s outstanding performance on Tuesday gave the Sharks a chance to make a comeback Askarov making an unexpected start was the Sharks best participant through two periods as he stopped of shots with the lone blemish being a Matt Boldy power play goal at the mark of the second period He finished with saves The Sharks meanwhile only managed five shots in both the first and second periods including one shot on Gustavsson in their first two power plays The Sharks have been ice cold on the man advantage lately converting only of chances over their last eight games before Smith scored in the third Smith now has points in each of the past five games with a combined three goals and four assists and Celebrini had three goals and four assists in that time Celebrini came into Tuesday with a team-leading points tied for fourth the greater part in the NHL With two assists on Tuesday Celebrini now has points in just seven road games Still the Sharks were primarily dominated by the Wild at even strength The exception was the Sharks second line of Alexander Wennberg Philipp Kurashev and William Eklund as that trio had six of San Jose s first shots Eklund returned to the Sharks lineup on Tuesday after he missed the previous four games with a lower-body injury Goaltending though has been a big reason for the Sharks turnaround this season In their first games of the season the Sharks had an save percentage and perhaps not surprisingly a - - record In the next six games the Sharks save percentage between Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic rose to and the squad went - - Nedeljkovic was expected to get the start against the Wild But for reasons that were not instantly clear Askarov started instead and Nedeljkovic sat on the bench Askarov was coming off a -save performance on Saturday when he made saves in a - Sharks win over the Florida Panthers In three starts this month before Tuesday Askarov is - - with a save percentage