SAN JOSE – Timo Meier scored in the third period for the Sharks to tie their match with the Calgary Flames, 3-3, on Tuesday night.
It seemed the Sharks were in a position to challenge the Flames for a win.
Instead, Calgary reeled off four straight goals in a 7-3 shellacking of San Jose.
Nazem Kadri and Milan Lucic scored scored to give the Flames a 5-3 lead.
Tyler Toffoli scored his second goal of the game to make 6-3, and Kadri scored for the 7-3 , both goals came in the final two minutes of the game.
“We weren’t ready to play and it trickled into our game later on, too,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “It’s hard to chase the game. If those [first] two goals didn’t happen, maybe our mindset is a little different.”
The Flames improved to 15-12-6.
Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves in the Calgary win.
San Jose recovered from an embarrassing start to the game, the Flames scored twice in the first 30 seconds of the game.
“Our overall effort was probably pretty embarrassing,” San Jose forward Nico Sturm said. “We’ve lost games, obviously, this season, but I thought the effort was always there. And today I thought, for the first time, we just looked, we looked scared at times. Especially at home, it’s unacceptable.”
Toffoli and Dillon Dube scored for the 2-0 lead.
“We just give the puck away on both goals, first two shifts, just big turnovers that end up in the back of the net,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “I thought after that we really played tentative. You’re on your heels and you’re playing a good, fast team.”
Sturm cut into the lead for San Jose to make it 2-1 in the first, Trevor Lewis scored in the middle frame to give the Flames a 3-1 lead.
“Feels good to get a lead, and especially we knew they’re going to come out after playing a team back to back,” Dube said. “It’s hard to win another game against them, especially in their building.”
San Jose dropped to 10-18-6.
The Sharks’ Alexander Barabanov scored with 37 seconds left in the middle frame for a 3-2 score to the Flames.
“I thought actually in the third, in the first 10 or 12 minutes, we finally settled in,” Sturm said. “But it took us over 40 minutes [to] finally put them on their heels a little bit.”
James Reimer made 32 saves in the loss.
“We weren’t ready to play and it trickled into our game later on, too,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “It’s hard to chase the game. If those [first] two goals didn’t happen, maybe our mindset is a little different.”
Photo Credit – Jack.Lima@prohockeynews.com
