Mackenzie Blackwood made 44 saves to shut out his former team as the San Jose Sharks beat the New Jersey Devils 1-0 on Sunday at the Prudential Center to start a four-game road trip.
Blackwood made 25 saves in the first two periods but was especially brilliant in the third when he made 19 saves, including six on a penalty kill after defenseman Mario Ferraro was called for hooking with 3:32 left in regulation.
Blackwood, who spent the first five seasons of his NHL career with the Devils, now has 11 career shutouts. The 44 saves he made are the most in Sharks team history in a 1-0 shutout victory.
“It’s pretty cool for me,” said Blackwood, who was drafted by the Devils in 2015 and played with the team from 2018 to 2023 before he was traded to San Jose. “I spent a lot of time here. I have good relationships with a lot of the guys over in that room. They’re amazing people. I’m really fortunate that I got to come into the league with such special people, and it was a treat for me to get started there.
“It’s pretty fun tonight to be able to do that.”
Nico Sturm scored the game’s only goal for the Sharks (5-9-2), who won for the fifth time in the last seven games.
“I think the games that we’ve won this year, we played mostly very simple,” Sturm said. “With the roster makeup that we have, that’s how we’ve got to play.”
Sturm was credited for his third goal of the season at the 16:21 mark of the first period.
After a strong forecheck, Sturm took control of the puck behind the Devils and backhanded a pass intended for Carl Grundstrom toward the front. But the puck went off the skate of ex-Shark Timo Meier and past goalie Jake Allen for a 1-0 San Jose lead.
The Sharks thought they had taken a 2-0 lead when Fabian Zetterlund, on a second effort amid a scramble in front of the Devils’ net, dove to chip the puck over the goal line. But after initially ruling the goal to be good, on-ice officials determined that Zetterlund illegally contacted Allen’s pad before the goal.
Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky considered challenging the officials’ call but determined it wasn’t worth the risk. If the challenge had been unsuccessful, the Sharks would have been assessed a delay-of-game penalty.
“I’m kind of a little bit lost for words because I think if you call it on the ice, then (the Devils) should have to challenge it,” Warsofsky said. “We thought about it. It was a tough one.”
Blackwood, who was traded by the Devils to the Sharks on June 27, 2023, for a 2023 sixth-round draft pick, was starting against his former team for the second time.
Blackwood faced New Jersey once last season, on Feb. 27 at SAP Center, but an injury forced him to leave the game after just 17 minutes. Kaapo Kähkönen gave seven goals on 31 shots to the Devils in relief as the Sharks went onto a 7-2 loss.
Blackwood now has a 3-4-2 record, a 3.10 goals against average, and a .910 save percentage. He is a pending unrestricted free agent in the final year of his two-year contract, which he signed with San Jose on July 1, 2023.
“He was outstanding, probably the best I’ve seen him play,” Warsofsky said of Blackwood. “You could tell he was dialed in, focused, and tracking pucks really well.”
The Sharks came into Sunday with a 1-5-1 record away from home. Their only road victory was a dramatic 5-4 overtime win over Utah on Oct. 28. Back then, they erased a three-goal deficit in the final five minutes of the third period before Alexander Wennberg scored in the extra session.
SMITH SITS: Rookie center Will Smith was given another development day Sunday, his fourth in 16 games this season. Smith also did not dress for road games last month against the Winnipeg Jets, Los Angeles Kings, and the Utah Hockey Club.
The Sharks are now 2-2-0 in games without Smith, who has two goals and an assist in 12 games as a rookie. Smith has not played in games on back-to-back days yet this season, a trend that will continue Monday when Smith is expected back in the lineup as the Sharks play the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Sharks are giving Smith and fellow rookie centerman Macklin Celebrini intermittent ‘development days’ through at least the first half of the season, trying to help both players adjust to the hectic travel and playing schedules in their first NHL seasons.
Wennberg replaced Smith as the Sharks’ third-line center for Sunday’s game, with Barclay Goodrow and Luke Kunin on the wings.
Celebrini centered a line with Ty Dellandrea and Tyler Toffoli on the wings, and the Sharks reunited the “Lund Line” for Sunday, with center Mikael Granlund playing with William Eklund and Zetterlund.
Eklund had a season-low 15:20 in ice time in the Sharks’ 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said after the loss that he needed more from Eklund, who has one assist in his last four games.
Eklund, Zetterlund, and Granlund became the Sharks’ top forwards toward the end of last season, combined for 58 points over the final 24 games in March and April.
WALMAN STILL OUT: Defenseman Jake Walman practiced Saturday but missed his third straight game Sunday, and the second straight he’s missed because of an upper-body injury. Walman leads all Sharks defensemen with nine points in 13 games.
After Monday, the Sharks finish their road trip with games against the New York Rangers on Thursday and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.