In San Jose Wednesday night, the visiting Anaheim Ducks’ John Gibson made 31 saves, some of them spectacular, in a 5-2 win over the Sharks.
The loss spoiled the debut of defenseman Erik Karlsson who was a -2 on the night.
“[Gibson’s] been strong,” Anaheim head coach Randy Carlyle said. “This organization made a commitment to [Gibson], and deservedly so. He’s earned the opportunity to grab the net, and you see again tonight he’s in there to battle for our hockey club.”
Ducks rookie, Max Comtois scored his first goal of his career with just 49 seconds gone in the game.
“Wouldn’t believe it if you had said that to me before the game,” Comtois said. “It was a good play by [Henrique] to poke the puck to me, and I found a way to put it in the back of the net. I’m really happy to get this one out of the way. It’s good for the confidence.”
Evander Kaneand Tomas Hertl each scored for the Sharks who held a 2-1 lead.
“We did a lot of good things,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “The result wasn’t there, and I know everyone is disappointed. Everyone wants to start out with a great win in front of our home crowd. We did a lot of good things, but obviously there are some areas we need to clean up too. It’s that time of year. You get to know your team. But when I look at the game, other than not winning, I think there was good effort there and we did a lot more good than bad.”
Rickard Rakelltied the game at 2-2 and Brandon Montour and Adam Henrique added markers for a 4-2 Anaheim lead.
“It’s a huge win for us. Not the prettiest win, but we found a way. We stuck to our game, kept pushing, and found a way. Special teams came up big for us, and [goalie John Gibson] came up big for us too and kept us in it the first two periods,” Henrique after the win.
Carter Rowneyclosed the scoring with an empty netter with 24 seconds left in the game.
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Sharks highlights]
Martin Jones made just 14 saves in the loss.
“We dominated the first two periods pretty good. We had a lot of chances. We didn’t get some bounces to go our way tonight. And we paid the price with the result,” Kane said.
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