*Photo from the Globe and Mail*
You'd think this was a pretty easy win when you look at the box score. You would be correct. Logan Couture had a goal and an assist, Matt Nieto scored, and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Ottawa Senators with a 5-1 victory on Monday night in San Jose.
The Sharks improved to 7-11-3 on the season with the win, including points in 7 of their last 10 games, 4 of which have been wins. While playing his old team, Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson became the first defenseman to reach 30 points this season, just 21 games in.
Karlsson gave his thoughts on the team's play after the game, saying that "I think we started a little bit sloppy, but we cleaned it up fairly quick. And the last 40 minutes, I think we played like the better team and it was a nice, nice win for us to get at home. It's been a while."
The Sharks drew first blood with the scoring. 6:22 into the game, Noah Gregor found the back of the net, giving the Sharks a 1-0 lead on his first goal of the season. Later on in the first, Tim Stutzle provided the equalizer for Ottawa, tying the game 1-1 on his 7th goal of the season, coming 13:14 into the first period.
Early in the second period, Timo Meier scored for the Sharks 1:18 in, giving them a 2-1 lead on his 9th goal of the season. Nieto then scored 4:53 into the second to double the Sharks lead to 3-1. Couture and Luke Kunin assisted on a power play goal from Tomas Hertl to make it 4-1, before Couture scored the lone goal of the 3rd, that being an empty netter to seal a 5-1 home win.
Picking up the start for the Sharks was backup goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who turned in arguably his best performance of the season. Kahkonen stopped all but one of the 38 shots he faced from the Senators, recording a .974 save percentage to improve his record to 2-4-1 in 7 starts.
Kahkonen said of getting the win that "We shut it down really well in the third. I think we did a great job there, not giving them anything. It’s tough if you give teams life early in the third because they might get a goal or something."
For the Senators, veteran Cam Talbot got the start in net. Talbot got hit early and often, saving only 4 of 7 shots before he was pulled with a dismal .571 save percentage. Anton Forsberg took over the rest of the way and stopped 22 of 23 shots he faced from the Sharks. With the loss, Talbot's record drops to 1-4-0 in 5 starts.
Senators defenseman Nick Holden offered his take on the loss, saying that "We played really good in the first period, and then we needed to expect that they were going to push back. All teams are all going to push back on you, so you need to be able to play inside of that as well and weather it a little bit and then get back on them."
Both teams get back in action with Wednesday night road tilts. The Sharks face the Seattle Kraken, with James Reimer projected to start. Talbot is expected to start for the Senators against the Vegas Golden Knights.
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