Sharks’ Failed Advantage Turned a Bad Second Period Into a Rout

A man advantage is hockey’s clearest invitation to improve a situation. San Jose instead watched Ottawa make its situation worse.

Ridly Greig scored shorthanded at 12:17 of the second period, turning one of the Sharks’ three power plays into Ottawa’s fourth goal in a 5-1 victory at SAP Center. The goal did not merely accompany San Jose’s collapse; it arrived during the opportunity that should have helped stop it.

A power play became a deficit on the scoreboard, and the second period became much harder to rescue.

Ottawa had already inflicted a different kind of damage shortly before Greig scored. Tim Stützle scored at 10:54 with the teams skating four-on-four, assisted by Jake Sanderson and Dylan Cozens. That was an even-strength manpower situation, not a San Jose penalty-killing failure.

Greig’s goal, by contrast, came while the Sharks had the extra skater after Ottawa was penalized for a bench infraction for excess skaters at 11:38.

Greig finished the shorthanded chance with a backhand, assisted by Shane Pinto, pushing Ottawa’s lead from 3-1 to 4-1. San Jose went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Ottawa’s penalty kill went 3-for-3. Those numbers are already unhelpful for the Sharks.

The shorthanded goal makes the comparison considerably harsher: Ottawa protected its own advantages, while San Jose’s most damaging special-teams moment came on a chance it had been given.

Still, the Sharks’ afternoon had not begun as a complete malfunction. Michael Misa scored at 16:06 of the first period, only 2:41 after Dylan Cozens had given Ottawa the lead. Misa’s wrist shot, assisted by Jacob Trouba and Kiefer Sherwood, made it 1-1 and left the teams tied after the opening period. San Jose had answered its first setback before the game’s central problems arrived.

That makes the middle frame more instructive than a simple description of total failure. Drake Batherson restored Ottawa’s lead at 5:04. Stützle then scored at four-on-four, and Greig followed during the Sharks’ power play.

Three Ottawa goals came within 7:13, but they came through three different situations: Batherson at even strength, Stützle with both teams down a skater and Greig shorthanded. The Senators found several routes to offense; San Jose’s response stopped after Misa’s equalizer.

The penalty kill offers the clearest counterweight to the ugly power-play sequence. Ottawa received three advantages and scored on none of them. San Jose’s penalty killers therefore completed a clean afternoon, even as the team’s own power play failed to produce a goal.

The power play’s failure should not swallow the penalty kill’s success. Killing all three Ottawa chances was a legitimate success. Failing to score on three of its own was ordinary disappointment until Greig converted one into a goal against.

Alex Nedeljkovic also should receive a proportionate share of the criticism. He stopped 30 of Ottawa’s 34 shots, and Pinto’s goal at 17:30 of the third period came into an empty net. That fifth goal does not belong on the goalie’s ledger.

Ottawa still outshot San Jose 35-23, including 15-8 in the third, so Nedeljkovic faced a substantial workload and allowed four goals before the net was vacated. Four against on 34 shots is not a winning line, but it is different from surrendering all five in the final score.

Nor can the Sharks point to one isolated Ottawa scorer. Cozens and Batherson scored at even strength, Stützle scored four-on-four, Greig scored shorthanded and Pinto added the empty-net goal. Stützle finished with a goal and an assist, Cozens had the same line, and Sanderson assisted on two goals. Ottawa’s attack kept producing across changing circumstances, while San Jose managed only Misa’s first-period finish.

The failed advantage remains the sharpest dividing point because it was both a scoreboard event and a missed chance to alter the second period’s direction. San Jose was down 3-1 when the power play arrived. It was down 4-1 when Greig’s backhand crossed the line.

The later empty-netter created the four-goal final margin; Greig’s goal created the three-goal hole that made the comeback remote. Misa had shown the Sharks could answer, and the penalty kill had shown they could deny Ottawa. Their own advantage, however, was where the afternoon turned irretrievable.

Sources

NHL: official final box score

NHL: official play-by-play

NHL: official game summary and completion time