San Jose Sharks unable to play spoiler in loss to Calgary Flames
The San Jose Sharks had one final chance to play spoiler on Sunday night and end the already precarious playoff hopes of the Calgary Flames.
But with the game tied in the third period, the Sharks allowed even-strength goals to forwards Yegor Sharangovich and Matt Coronato in what became a 5-2 loss to the Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Sharangovich beat Sharks goalie Georgi Romanov 90 seconds into the third period with a wrist shot after he took a nifty pass from Morgan Frost in the slot.
Coronato scored at the 10:55 mark after he shook off a check from Nikolai Kovalenko, took a pass from Mikael Backlund, and beat Romanov from in close for his 24th of the season as the Sharks suffered their eighth straight loss.
Sharangovich added an empty-net goal with 2:44 to go as the Flames swept their season series with the Sharks 4-0 and kept their playoff hopes alive.
“Obviously, I’m friends with some of those guys over there,” said Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli, who was with the Flames from Feb. 2022 to July 2023 and scored his 30th goal of the season Sunday. “But any chance you can eliminate someone from the playoffs, it’s exciting.”
The Sharks are now a far less-than-desirable 18-18-6 this season when leading or tied going into the third period. Coming into Sunday, the Sharks (20-49-11) already knew they would finish in 32nd and last place in the NHL’s overall standings for the second straight year.
Once again, there’s nowhere for the Sharks to go but up.
“We’ve been in so many games this year and blown so many leads in stupid ways,” Toffoli said, “that I think if everyone reflects in the right way going into the summer and comes into training camp next year, it can be a completely different season.”
The Sharks outshot the Flames 15-6 in the first period but were down 2-1 as poor puck management and some shoddy defense led to the Calgary goals scored by MacKenzie Weegar and Adam Klapka.
“We just got a little out of structure on that (first Sharangovich) goal,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We hand them two goals in that first period, after having a really good period, and you can’t afford to do that in this league. That’s what we basically did.”
The Sharks lost two players to injury Sunday. Defenseman Jack Thompson left the game late in the third period with an upper-body ailment, and center Zack Ostapchuk exited earlier in the third with a lower-body issue.
Toffoli 30th goal of the season came in the first period and he also assisted on Jan Rutta’s third goal of the year, which tied the game 2-2 at the 4:20 mark of the second period.
On his goal, Toffoli took a pass from Lucas Carlsson and put a shot on net that Flames goalie Dustin Wolf stopped. But Toffoli collected the rebound, took a stride to his right, and fired another shot just under the crossbar to reach the 30-goal plateau for the third consecutive year.
Toffoli, who signed a four-year contract with San Jose on the first day of free agency last July, became the third player in Sharks history to record 30 goals in their first season with the team, joining Dany Heatley (39 in 2009-10) and Sergei Makarov (30 in 1993-94).
Toffoli scored 34 goals as a member of the Flames in 2022-23 and 33 last season, starting the year with the New Jersey Devils before he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets.
Toffoli almost had his 31st on a Sharks third-period power play, as he collected a loose puck in front of the Flames’ net that caromed off the end boards. But with the puck on its edge, Toffoli didn’t get a great shot away, and Wolf quickly slid over and made the save.
With the goals from Weegar and Klapka, the Flames scored twice on their first five shots. But Romanov still had 20 saves in the first two periods, including three on the penalty kill. Romanov finished with 25 saves as his record this season fell to 0-6-0.
Calgary is now three points behind the Minnesota Wild and two points behind the St. Louis Blues for the two wild-card spots in the Western Conference. Minnesota and St. Louis each have one game left, and Calgary now has two games left to catch the Wild or the Blues.
The Wild would have clinched a playoff berth had the Flames lost to the Sharks in any fashion, and the Blues would have secured a postseason berth if Calgary had lost to San Jose in regulation time.
The Flames finish the regular season with a home game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday and a road game in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The Sharks finish the regular season with a game in Vancouver on Monday and a home date against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.