In Elmont, the San Jose Sharks rallied with three goals in the third period to tie the Islanders, 4-4, on Tuesday night, and then hit for the game-winner with five seconds left in extra time on a marker form William Eklund.
“I was just exhausted, to be honest,” Eklund said. “I was just trying to get some speed there and Granlund made an unbelievable play to me, and I just tried to rip it through the net and it went in.”
Tomas Hertl scored the last two goals of his hat trick in the third to force the extra session.
“We’re happy about this group because we’ve gone through a lot of stuff this year,” Hertl said. “This [win] shows me something. We could do it. Last game, we almost came back and against a really good team (6-5 loss at the New York Rangers on Sunday). We actually finished today, so feeling really good.”
Kaapo Kahkonen made 35 saves in the win.
The Sharks improved to 7-17-2,
Kevin Labanc started the third period rally for San Jose when he scored at 11:55 of the third to trim the deficit to 4-2.
“That second goal really gave us a ray of hope,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “Really good job by that line, the (Nico) Sturm, Labanc, (Justin) Bailey line, establishing the forecheck, getting the puck up top, and (Nikita) Okhotiuk bombs it, and we get screens.”
The Isles dropped to 10-7-7.
“It’s unacceptable. That’s all that needs to be said,” New York forward Brock Nelson said. “Up two at home, four or five minutes left, we should be putting two points in the bank and moving on. … For whatever reason this is costing us too many times.”
Julien Gauthier scored midway through the first period to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead.
Hertl picked up his first of the hat trick at 12:19 to tie it, 1-1.
The Isles then reeled off three straight to take a 4-1 lead into the third period.
Brock Nelson reclaimed the lead, 2-1, for New York at 5:27 of the middle frame off the power play.
Mike Reilly pushed the lead to 3-1 with a shorthanded goal at 5:17 of the third period,
New York seemingly took control of eh game at 8:27 when Ryan Pulock ballooned the lead to 4-1 at 8:27 on the power play.
That’s when the Sharks took a pin to the balloon.
Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves in the loss.
“I saw a lot of good things,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “The first period we had a lot of scoring chances. Second period, we were going to the net, crashing to the net pretty hard. We scored a couple of power-play goals and a short-handed goal. We had the game under control with eight and a half minutes left. To lose that hockey game is a sin.”
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