SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks ended a long losing streak on home ice in emphatic fashion on Thursday night.
Forwards Alexander Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev each had a goal and an assist, and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves in his best performance of the season to help lead the Sharks to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils at SAP Center.
The third line of Wennberg, Kurashev, and Eklund had an impressive first period as each player scored a goal to help give the Sharks a 3-1 lead. After withstanding a Devils push in the second period, mainly with the help of Nedeljkovic, the Sharks got even-strength goals from Will Smith and Tyler Toffoli to take a 5-1 lead and put the game mostly out of reach.
Macklin Celebrini assisted on Smith’s goal at the 16:50 mark, controlling a faceoff in the Devils zone before getting the puck over to Smith, who scored his fourth of the season on a second effort. Toffoli’s goal was also his fourth of the year, as he redirected a shot by Dmitry Orlov past Devils goalie Jake Allen.
Celebrini now has five goals and seven assists in a career-long six-game point streak, and Eklund has nine points in a five-game point streak.
Nedeljkovic came into Thursday with a 1-4-1 record and an unsightly .844 save percentage. But the Sharks haven’t always played the most stout brand of defense in Nedeljkovic’s starts, or in several of Yaroslav Askarov’s appearances.
The Sharks started this season 0-3-2 on home ice, and actually hadn’t won at the Tank since March 27 of last season when they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 in a shootout. The Sharks then lost their last five home games, all in regulation time, as part of a year-ending 11-game losing streak that sealed their status as the NHL’s last-place team.
The Sharks (3-6-2) were coming off a disappointing 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday when they essentially dominated the final two periods. However, they have now won three of their last five games and will conclude their homestand with games against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday and the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.
Rookie defenseman Sam Dickinson played his ninth game of the season on Thursday, and now the Sharks need to decide on whether to keep him on the NHL roster or loan him back to his major junior team, the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.
If the Sharks play Dickinson in a 10th game, they would burn the first year of his three-year entry-level contract, making him eligible for restricted free agency – and a likely significant pay rise — following the 2027-28 season.
But Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said the team’s decision whether to keep Dickinson and rookie center Michael Misa or return them to their respective OHL teams will ultimately come down to what they feel is best for their development.
“At the end of the day, what’s best for the player and what’s best for the team?” Warsofsky said of the decision. “If they can handle it, and if we believe they can handle it, they’ll stay here. If not, then we’ll go through those processes.”
Before Thursday, Dickinson, 19, had played eight of the Sharks’ 10 games this season and averaged just over 14 minutes of ice time. While he was still looking for his first NHL point, he did have positive underlying numbers — with a Corsi-for percentage of 52.46, per Natural Stat Trick — as he played mainly on the Sharks’ third defense pair.
“We’re going to see how engaged he is,” Warsofsky said when asked what he needed to see from Dickinson. “Is he executing the breakouts. Is he executing our structure? Is the pace suitable from him from the start of the game to the (end)? How many times is there a dip in his game?
“There’s going to be mistakes, but are we seeing less and less of those mistakes?