Igor Chernyshov scored his first NHL goal, Macklin Celebrini had a goal and an assist and the visiting San Jose Sharks finally beat Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko in a 6-3 victory on Saturday night.
Chernyshov and William Eklund recorded a goal and an assist. Ryan Reaves, John Klingberg and Collin Graf had markers for San Jose, which snapped a three-game skid.
Celebrini’s outing stretched the 19-year-old North Vancouver native’s point streak to seven games (five goals, nine assists). Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov stopped 24 shots.
Linus Karlsson, Marco Rossi and Drew O’Connor scored for the Canucks, who lost at home to the Sharks for the first time since 2019. Conor Garland and Filip Hronek had two assists apiece.
Forward Elias Pettersson returned to the lineup and skated in his 500th career game. Demko made 31 saves but lost for the first time to San Jose in 14 career decisions.
In the first period, Demko made a sprawling save while on his back. The puck came to rest a few inches from the goal line, and Reaves burst in head-first and poked it in at 6:11.
The visitors’ great start continued when Celebrini won a faceoff that went back to Klingberg. The defenseman then hammered home a goal low on Demko’s glove side to double the advantage just 1:44 after Reaves’ tally.
Vancouver used its special teams to get back in it after the Sharks’ Vincent Iorio went off for crosschecking at 8:31. Karlsson chipped in a sharp pass from Conor Garland at 10:04.
In the second, Eklund got a piece of a puck and sent it slightly up in the air in the low slot. Facing Demko, Rossi inadvertently clipped the puck and sent it over his netminder. The own-goal was credited to Eklund, his ninth.
Rossi trimmed it to 3-2 just 36 seconds into the third with a shot that Askarov batted with his blocker, yet the puck bounced in to tighten the match.
During a power play, Chernyshov restored the two-goal cushion by hitting the net for the first time at 4:47, but O’Connor ripped a short-handed goal at 10:43 to make it 4-3.
Celebrini put the victory to bed by rocketing his 20th goal on a one-timer with 3:40 left. Graff then tallied into the empty net at 3:05.
–Field Level Media
