The San Jose Sharks had their losing streak extended to six games on Wednesday and once again a disastrous second period proved to be the main culprit.
Leading by one, the Sharks allowed three unanswered goals in the second period, including two in 13 seconds, in what became a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
“I think we played good hockey for the first 25-30 minutes,” Sharks center Mikael Granlund said. “They scored one goal, and then one right after.
“We’ve got to be mentally stronger with those kinds of situations. After that, our game went down.”
Fabian Zetterlund scored his 10th of the season in a first-period goal as San Jose took its first lead in a game since beating the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on Dec. 12. But the Kings capitalized on two Sharks turnovers near the start of the second period to take a 2-1 lead.
Sharks defenseman Henry Thrun had a pass intended for Alexander Barabanov inside the Kings zone intercepted by Kevin Fiala, who cruised in on a breakaway and went backhand-to-forehand to beat goalie Kaapo Kahkonen at the 2:57 mark of the second period.
After the ensuing faceoff, the Kings sent the puck deep into the Sharks’ zone where Jack Studnicka played it below the goal line. He sent a pass behind the net to Mario Ferraro, but a forechecking Trevor Lewis took the puck away, took a stride to the front of the net, and beat Kahkonen at the 3:10 mark.
The Sharks have now allowed consecutive goals in under a minute eight times in their 23 losses this season, and on Wednesday, their confidence nosedived as a result.
“I think we played good hockey for the first 25-30 minutes,” Sharks center Mikael Granlund said. “They scored one goal, and then one right after.
“We’ve got to be mentally stronger with those kinds of situations. After that, our game went down.”
After Pierre-Luc Dubois scored at the 12:26 mark of the second for a 3-1 Los Angeles lead, Adrian Kempe added two more insurance goals in the third period for the Kings, who went on to their fourth win in five games.
“It’s happened to us too often this year or you could just feel it again,” Shark coach David Quinn said of the letdown, “and then it just got away from us. We got demoralized.”
Kahkonen stopped 37 of 42 shots, including five on the penalty kill. Both teams were 0-for-3 with the man advantage, but the Sharks’ inefficiency on the power play proved to be much more harmful.
Down 2-1, the Sharks had a brief power play after Drew Doughty was called for hooking at the 8:26 mark of the second period. But Granlund was called for holding just 24 seconds later.
In all, the Sharks managed just two shots in 4:24 of power play time.
“Our power play really hurt us tonight,” Quinn said. “We had two chances to kind of get on the board or at least gain some momentum with our power play at key times in the game and if anything, we get demoralized from our power play and just just unfortunately.”
The Sharks power play is now 1-for-10 over the last four games.
“We’ve got to have way more of a work ethic. We’ve got to have way more of an urgency. It was slow,” Quinn said. “We went through this before and we’ve got to get back to playing with much more urgency and efficiency with our passing. We’re just mentally and physically slow on our power play.”
The Sharks have now been outscored 28-10 on their six-game skid, including a 13-3 differential in the second period alone. San Jose has been outscored 51-23 in the second period in 35 games this season.
The Sharks, now 2-9-1 against Pacific Division opponents this season, host Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday in their penultimate game of 2023. San Jose closes the calendar year on Sunday when they face the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena in Denver.
Zetterlund’s goal came at the 11:02 mark of the first period.
Fiala possessed the puck inside the Sharks zone and cut back toward the blue line before he tried to send a pass to defenseman Mikey Anderson. Instead, Zetterlund intercepted the pass, streaked in alone, and fired a wrist shot past goalie David Rittich.
Alexander Barabanov and defenseman Calen Addison returned to the Sharks’ lineup Wednesday. Barabanov missed the Sharks’ last two games before the break because of an undisclosed illness and Addison missed the last three games before the break due to a lower-body injury.
The Sharks needed all of the reinforcement they could get.
San Jose had four players on injured reserve before Christmas and added a fifth on Wednesday as forward/defensemen Jacob MacDonald came down with a lower body after in the third period of Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks. MacDonald scored but the Sharks lost 7-4, extending their skid to five games.
The Sharks’ problems on their losing streak included a lack of energy at times, a sagging penalty kill, a tendency at times to cheat for offense, and some soft play in front of their net, as they fell to 32nd and last in the NHL’s overall standings.
Facing the Kings, who walloped the Sharks 4-1 on Dec. 19, coach David Quinn wanted his team to control what they could inefficient changes, shift lengths, and faceoff responsibilities and situational awareness.
“To me, those are things we’ve got to clean up,” Quinn told the Sharks Audio Network before the game. “Unfortunately, when they creep into our game – and it doesn’t happen a lot — we end up paying the price.”