San Jose, CA - A bizarre sequence of events involving goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic led to a crushing 4-3 overtime loss for the San Jose Sharks against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night. The Sharks, who were seeking their first season-opening victory in five years, saw their hopes dashed in the final minutes of regulation and a chaotic overtime period.
The Sharks held a 3-2 lead late in the third period after goals from Jeff Skinner, Alexander Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev. After successfully killing off a penalty, San Jose appeared to be on the verge of securing the win. William Eklund nearly sealed the victory with an empty-net attempt, but his initial shot went just wide, and a subsequent wraparound attempt was thwarted by Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore.
The Golden Knights then surged up the ice, and Jack Eichel flipped a seemingly harmless puck towards the San Jose net. Inexplicably, the puck took a strange bounce and eluded Nedeljkovic, tying the game at 3-3 with just 1:34 remaining in regulation.
Nedeljkovic's woes continued into overtime. Just 1:24 into the extra period, he ventured far from his net in an attempt to play a loose puck and initiate a breakout. However, his pass was intercepted by Vegas' Reilly Smith. Theodore collected the puck and passed it back to Smith, who tapped it into the vacated net for the game-winning goal.
The Sharks surrendered a lead in the third period for the 16th time in their last 83 games. After the game, Nedeljkovic faced the media and joked about needing to work on "fielding pop flies". Veteran forward Jeff Skinner voiced his support for Nedeljkovic, expressing confidence in the goalie's ability to move on from the costly errors. Skinner also defended Nedeljkovic’s aggressive play in overtime, saying that it was a calculated risk to try and create a scoring chance.
Golden Knights Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden also scored in the game, while Akira Schmid made 20 saves. Nedeljkovic stopped 27 shots in the loss. The Sharks will look to rebound as they host the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night. The Golden Knights will continue their road trip in Seattle.
