SAN JOSE — The Sharks just ended a road trip in which they rarely led and scored just six goals. But the word ’embarrassing’ was never uttered even as the Sharks went 0-4-0.
The word came out a couple of times after the Sharks’ game with the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
“I thought we played a pretty hard second, third and overtime for a group of fans who have stuck with us through a tough year,” captain Logan Couture said after the Sharks’ come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Devils. “We owed it to them, to ourselves, to come out and play harder than the first, because that was embarrassing.
“Loved the response.”
Down 2-0 after a stinker of a first period, Mario Ferraro and Marcus Sorensen both scored period goals to help the Sharks to erase a 2-0 deficit. Couture scored the game-winner 38 seconds into overtime off a pass from Evander Kane as the Sharks ended a five-game losing streak.
Kane also assisted on Ferraro’s goal at the 2:20 mark of the second period to help the Sharks get some momentum on their side. Sorensen then scored shorthanded after a pass from Joel Kellman on a 2 on 1 at the 15:58 mark.
The Sharks, with so many rookies, have a handful of important lessons to learn before the end of what’s been a disastrous season. One is how they’re going to respond as a group when they face an early deficit.
“It was a disgrace in the first period,” Sharks interim coach Bob Boughner said. “It looked like a team that was on an eight day road trip and got back yesterday on a long flight and it just looked like we had no legs.”
There were a few choice words said inside the Sharks’ dressing room in the first few minutes of the first intermission before Boughner came in and had his say.
“It was just embarrassing, Every one of those guys, they don’t want to be in that situation,” Boughner said. “I said it’s a challenge for us to, you know, show some character here and some pride here and push as soon as the pucks dropped in the second period.
“And credit to them. They went out and they pushed, pushed hard and found a way to gain some momentum.”
Martin Jones, starting for the third time in five games, stopped 15 of 17 shots in the first two periods.
The Sharks were coming off an emotional road trip that saw both Patrick Marleau and Barclay Goodrow traded to other teams. They were competitive in every game, but scored just six goals.
“We know that there’s going to be teams that we play against that are going to have a better team on paper. We’re not dismissing that fact,” Boughner said before Tuesday’s game. “But we’ve got to change our expectations that we expect to win this game tonight. It’s not good enough just to go out there and compete and say, well, we’ve got a bunch of young guys in the lineup and we’re going to play hard and see what happens.
“That’s not the attitude and the mindset we need.”
Ferraro’s goal at the 2:20 mark of the second period was the second of his NHL career and cut the Devils’ lead to 2-1. Ferraro took a pass from Evander Kane and fired a shot to the net that got past Schneider.
As the Sharks were killing a hooking penalty to Kane, Joel Kellman took control of a puck deep in the San Jose end raced out on a 2 on 1, skated into the Devils’ zone and fed with Sorensen, who corralled the puck and fired it past Schneider for his seventh goal of the season.
Travis Zajac and Nikita Gusev scored in the first period for the Devils. Zajac’s goal came after his shot on net from a sharp angle was stopped by Jones, but trickled behind him. Marc-Edouard Vlasic tried to collect the puck and clear it away, but instead knocked it over the goal line at the 11:09 of the first period.
