Just when it felt like the San Jose Sharks’ rivalry with the Vegas Golden Knights couldn’t get any crazier than it already was, the third period of Wednesday’s game between the two team began.
Both Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture got into fights, as they dropped the gloves with Mark Stone and Jonathan Marchessault, respectively. It was Hertl’s first career NHL fighting major, as he got into it with Stone right in front of the Sharks’ net after Stone crunched Timo Meier along the wall in the neutral zone.
But most importantly, the two-goal lead the Sharks had at the start of the third period disappeared, as Cody Glass, Nicolas Hague, Ryan Reaves and Alec Martinez all scored in a span of eight minutes and three seconds to put the Golden Knights ahead by two.
The fights showed how the Sharks have come together as team over the past two months, but also left them without their top two centers just as they were trying to stay tied with the Golden Knights.
The goals by Glass and Martinez came on the power play, as Martinez’s goal with 5:14 left in the third period gave the Golden Knights a 5-3 lead.
Evander Kane got one goal back with 4:06 left in regulation time, but the Sharks couldn’t get any closer in a 5-4 loss to Vegas at T-Mobile Arena.
The Sharks had their best second period of the season to take a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Matt Nieto, Mario Ferraro and Kevin Labanc also scored in the second period as the Sharks put themselves in a position to beat the Golden Knights for the first time this season. Ferraro’s goal, his first of the season, came on a wraparound as he picked up a loose puck behind the Golden Knights' net and beat Marc-Andre Fleury.
Vegas coach Pete DeBoer went back to Fleury on Wednesday even though the Golden Knights got Robin Lehner back after he had missed the past five-plus weeks with concussion symptoms.
It's not hard to see why.
Fleury entered Wednesday’s game with a 3-0-0 record and a .973 save percentage against the Sharks this season. That included a 23-save performance Monday in a 2-1 win by the Golden Knights, who, with the victory, improved to 4-0-0 against the Sharks this season.
Sharks coach Bob Boughner started Devan Dubnyk for the fifth time in six days. Dubnyk made 34 saves Monday and entered Wednesday’s game with a 2-2-1 record, a .932 save percentage and 2.16 goals-against average in five games this month.
“(Dubnyk’s) given us some good starts of late and I thought he really battled hard last game,” Boughner said Wednesday morning. “He made some big saves when it was 2-1 to keep us in it and try and let us tie that game up.
“I just like his compete. I think against Vegas, you need to fight in net. They do get second and third opportunities, they are very offensive, especially below the tops of the circles off the rush, and you’ve got to stay with it. You’ve got to compete, you’ve got to fight in that crease and (Dubnyk’s) done a good job of that lately.”
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