A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to two points for the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night...the Buffalo Sabres and their offense woke up.
Leading 4-1 in the third period, the Sharks appeared to be well on their way to a fifth consecutive road win. Suddenly and shockingly, San Jose became the Atlanta Falcons and a once comfortable three-goal lead was no more.
The Sharks built their lead with goals form Joel Ward (6), Logan Couture (19), Melker Karlsson (7) and Joe Pavelski scored a power-play goal. It was not enough.
The Sabres rally was fast. I mean real fast.
Ryan O'Reilly made in 4-2 with a goal at 9:03. Evander Kane scored just over two minutes later and less than a minute later Kyle Okposo pulled Buffalo even with a wrist shot that eluded Martin Jones.
Kane completed the comeback in overtime with his second goal of the night.
Watch and weep...
This was a stunner of epic proportions. Buffalo was playing its second game in as many night and were coming off a loss to the New Jersey Devils. You can understand why I was sure the Sharks were heading towards the same result. The hockey gods had other ideas.
Not a great way to start the Sharks last east coast road trip of the season. Time to take the pity point and run.
What you might have missed....
- Joel Ward scored his sixth goal of the season and first since Jan. 21 vs. Col. Ward is on pace to score nine goals. He's heading towards his worst offensive output since 2012-13 when he scored just 8 goals in 39 with the Washington Capitals.
- Logan Couture scored his 19th goal of the season. He has three points (2g 1a) in the last two games and now has at least one point in 7 of the last 8 games (5g 5a).
- Joe Pavelski scored a power play goal. It was his sixth of the season and 18th point with the man advantage. Eighteen power play points is the most by a Shark this year.
- Martin Jones allowed five goals on 36 shots in the loss. It's the third time this season Jones has allowed five goals in a single game. The other two? MIN on Jan. 5 and NYR on Oct. 17.
- Mikkel Boedker assisted on Couture's first period goal. Boedker has 19 points (6g 13a) in 53 games. Eleven (4g 7a) of those points have come since Jan. 1.
- Despite the loss, San Jose scored four goals in the game. It was the eighth time in 17 games that the Sharks have scored at least that many. Remember when they were averaging around two goals a game?
The Sharks next game is Thursday at Boston. The Bruins are a team in flux. This might be a nice rebound game for the teal and black.
thanks for reading, Steve