It’s an interconference battle on the ice between a pair of teams that have struggled out of the gates on the ice in the Garden State. The San Jose Sharks are on the road as they make the trip to take on the New Jersey Devils Saturday afternoon. San Jose comes in off a 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers in their previous contest Thursday night on the road to get into the win column. New Jersey earned a 4-1 road victory over the Islanders in their previous game Thursday night. The Sharks own a 7-2-1 advantage in the last 10 meetings between the teams, including a 5-2 road victory in the most recent matchup on November 30, 2021.
San Jose snapped a five-game skid to start the season as they managed to prevail in overtime on the road over the Rangers. The Sharks improved to 1-5-0 on the season and sit last in the Pacific Division standings, six points behind Vegas for the division lead. San Jose is 31st in the league in goals for as they average 1.83 goals per contest. The Sharks are tied for 20th in goals against as they allow an average of 3.50 goals per contest. San Jose stands tied for 26th in the league in success with the man advantage as they have cashed in on 9.1% of their power play chances this season. The Sharks are tied for 1st in penalty killing as they have successfully navigated 100% of their shorthanded situations on the year.
Against the Rangers, San Jose still struggled offensively but did enough to earn two points for the first time all season. The Sharks were out shot 8-5 in the opening period but skated to the dressing room with a 1-0 advantage on the scoreboard after 20 minutes of play. Logan Couture opened the scoring with his second goal of the season, on the power play, at 6:02 of the stanza with assists going to Luke Kunin and Erik Karlsson. In the second period, San Jose was outshot 13-4 and outscored 2-1, leaving the game even at two after 40 minutes of play. After giving up two unanswered goals to trail for the first time in the contest, Radim Simek evened the score with his first goal of the season at 13:10 off assists from Matt Nieto and Oskar Lindblom. The third period saw the shots favor San Jose by a massive 16-2 margin though neither team was able to dent the twine, sending things to overtime. In the extra session, the Sharks held a 2-0 shot advantage and found the back of the net to earn the victory. Karlsson scored his second of the year at the 49-second mark off assists from Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl to give the Sharks the triumph. James Reimer made 21 saves for the Sharks, who held a 27-23 shot advantage, in the victory. Kaapo Kahkonen is expected to be in goal for this contest.