The Sharks have been accustomed to the bottom in recent years, but they obtained a small moral victory by managing to leave the last place in the circuit by beating the New Jersey Devils 1-0, Sunday, at the Prudential Center.
This comes to the detriment of the Montreal Canadiens, who find themselves in this unenviable position having won only four of their first 15 games of the season.
Mackenzie Blackwood was perfect on 44 shots against his former team to earn his first shutout of the season in nine games, and his 11th of his career. Only Troy Grosenick has made more shutout saves than him (45) in Sharks history, in 2014.
Blackwood was a second-round pick of the Devils in 2015 before joining the Sharks in July of last year.
On the other side, Jake Allen has nothing to reproach himself for having rejected 26 shots, he who could not do anything on the winning goal.
Luck changed at the end of the first period for Nico Sturm, author of the only goal of the match. He beat two defenders to rush to the net and his backhand shot was initially blocked by Allen, but he recovered the puck to put it back in front, hitting the right skate of Timo Meier who pushed him directly into his own net.
It was Sturm’s third goal this season. Carl Grundstrom and Henry Thrun collected assists during the sequence.
The Devils blanked, Jack Hughes will therefore have to wait before reaching the 300 point plateau.
It was a first duel between the first overall pick of the 2019 draft and that of the last auction, Macklin Celebrini.
Celebrini currently has three goals and one assist in four games in the NHL, after dealing with an injury. Hughes has 7 goals and 11 assists in 17 games.
The Hawks finally victorious against the Wild
Philipp Kurashev broke the deadlock in overtime to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Kurashev scored 1:48 into overtime with a shot off the glove side of Filip Gustavsson.
Petr Mrazek finished the match with 32 saves. He was solid in the final third, as his team was outshot 19-4.
The Hawks thus avoided a third defeat in a row this week. They had lost their last 12 duels against the Wild, since December 15, 2019.
Jason Dickinson had the other goal in the win, his second of the season. He had not scored in his last 10 games, having established a personal high of 22 goals last season.
Matt Boldy scored with 4:31 left to tie the game on Minnesota’s 32nd shot.
Gustavsson made 20 saves.
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