Goalie Alex Stalock didn’t have a great start Thursday against Calgary, as he and the Sharks allowed four goals on the Flames’ first eight shots. But Sharks coach Pete DeBoer wasn’t ready to blame all of his team’s woes on his backup goalie. Certain circumstances, he thought, played a role.
“He was in a tough spot tonight,” DeBoer said of Stalock after the Sharks 6-5 shootout loss to the Flames. “He hadn’t played in a long time and I actually thought after the first period, he settled in and made a couple big saves to give us a chance to get to overtime.
“I expected him to be a little rusty and we were a little rusty around him in the first period. I thought in the second and third, he was really good.”
You can find a slideshow of Thursday’s game here.
Stalock, and defenseman Matt Tennyson, both hadn’t played in what seemed like an eternity.
Starting goalie Martin Jones had made eight straight starts since Stalock’s last appearance, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 18 at SAP Center. DeBoer said earlier Thursday that he didn’t necessarily want to have Stalock sit for that long, but that a less taxing post-All Star break schedule, plus Jones’ strong play, dictated the way it played out.
Jones was 5-2-1 in those eight starts, and had a 33-save shutout Tuesday against the Blackhawks in Chicago.
Stalock entered the game with a 3-5-1 record and a 2.76 goals against average. His goals against was at bit better at home, though, at 2.18 in six games.
That didn’t hold up for the first 20 minutes. A bad giveaway by Justin Braun led to a goal by Sam Bennett, who used a screen to help beat Stalock with a low wrist shot on the blocker side. Shortly after, a shot by Mark Giordano went off Braun’s and through Stalock’s legs for a 2-0 Flames lead.
The Sharks allowed just 13 shots for the final 45 minutes. Stalock stopped all but one. He also stopped shots by Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan in the shootout before Jiri Hudler scored the game winner.
Enough for Stalock another start sometime soon? Probably. The Sharks play back to back games Feb. 18 and 19, first vs. Florida and then Carolina.
“They got a couple bounces go off a stick here and there and they’re in the back of the net,” Stalock said. “First one hit a pipe and went in. Just the way the game goes sometimes.”
Tennyson, in his first game since Dec. 8, finished with 7:48 of ice time on 11 shifts. He was benched for a good portion of the second period as the Sharks had swaths of power play time, and came back for two shifts in the third.
Does Tennyson play again Saturday? Maybe the Sharks don’t have a choice, depending if Brenden Dillon can’t go and if Paul Martin is unavailable. Martin got hurt late in the third period, going straight to the room after he was elbowed by Sam Bennett with three minutes to go in the third.
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Sharks forward Tommy Wingels scored his sixth of the season, and his second in five games, in the first period off a nice pass from Joonas Donskoi. But that’s hardly been the best part of his week. His wife, Molly, gave birth to a baby girl Wednesday.
Asked if kept the puck on his goal after he became a father for the first time, Wingels said, “Logan asked me if I wanted it to get it. I didn’t keep it, but it was a special day for me. We’re blessed to have a healthy little girl, and I’m excited to go see her.”
