Sharks’ Special-Teams Lead Couldn’t Survive Boston’s Even-Strength Turn

San Jose had already found three goals in Boston: it turned a power play, a penalty kill and another power play into a 3-2 third-period lead. What followed was less inventive and more damaging. The Bruins won the ordinary shifts, then used one more San Jose penalty to take control in a 6-4 victory Saturday at TD Garden.

Dmitry Orlov’s power-play goal early in the third put the Sharks in front, with Ivar Stenberg and Mason Marchment assisting. It completed a first three-goal collection that said plenty about San Jose’s opportunism: Michael Misa scored with the man advantage in the first period, Kiefer Sherwood finished short-handed in the second and Orlov converted on the power play. Will Smith later scored four-on-four.

San Jose did not score at five-on-five.

That is not an indictment of special teams. The Sharks were right to exploit Boston’s penalties, and Sherwood’s unassisted short-handed goal showed the reward for turning a defensive situation into offense. Misa’s goal had tied the game after Boston opened the scoring, while Orlov’s finish gave San Jose a lead it had earned through timely execution.

But a 3-2 advantage still has to survive the portion of the game played without unusual manpower. Boston’s answer arrived there. David Pastrňák brought Boston level with a goal at 8:27 in the third, eight seconds after his tripping penalty expired.

James Hagens followed at 9:07, putting the Bruins ahead 4-3. The goals were 40 seconds apart, and they changed the night before the next special-teams sequence could rescue San Jose.

That is the cleanest explanation for the loss. Boston did not need a power play to erase the lead or take it away. Pastrňák’s goal made the Sharks chase the game again; Hagens’ goal made the deficit real. A team can build a lead through special teams, but it cannot ask those units to repair every ordinary shift that goes wrong.

Alex Nedeljkovic should not be handed the whole defeat. He stopped twenty-nine of the thirty-four shots he faced, and the Sharks allowed 35 shots while producing 27. More importantly, the score had already swung to 4-3 before San Jose’s next major mistake.

Nedeljkovic’s save total reflects a demanding night, but the two goals that reversed the lead were the sort of even-strength damage a goaltender cannot routinely erase.

Nolan Allan’s double minor for high-sticking at 10:32 gave Boston a fresh opening. Fraser Minten scored at 12:00 on a rebound of a Peterka shot, extending the Bruins’ advantage to 5-3. The penalty was costly, and San Jose’s discipline failed at a poor moment.

It was not, however, where the game first slipped away. Pastrňák and Hagens had already transformed 3-2 into 4-3 before Boston returned to the power play.

Smith kept the Sharks within striking distance at 12:27. His four-on-four goal, assisted by Trouba and Macklin Celebrini, cut the deficit to 5-4 and gave San Jose one more successful answer in a game shaped by manpower. The Sharks had scored twice with a power play and once while short-handed, then found another goal with four skaters on each side.

Their ability to capitalize was real; so was their shortage of five-on-five offense.

Nedeljkovic’s team still had time, but it needed an even-strength response that never arrived. Boston held the one-goal edge until Will Borgen scored into the empty net at 19:32, with 28 seconds remaining. That final goal was insurance, not the decisive turn.

The decisive turn had come earlier, when two Boston goals at five-on-five took the lead away and forced San Jose to spend the rest of the period trying to rebuild it through special circumstances.

Boston’s empty-netter came with twenty-eight seconds left. The more damaging loss of control had occurred much earlier: Pastrňák and Hagens scored forty seconds apart while both teams had five skaters. San Jose had used special teams to reach the lead. Those two ordinary shifts were enough to send it chasing again.

Sources

Field Level Media: Sharks–Bruins game report

NHL: final game summary and period statistics