Aaron Dell makes a statement in his NHL debut, and Joe Pavelski’s late goal lifted the San Jose Sharks to a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on Tuesday night.
The Sharks came out of the Big Apple with a split.
Coming off their first loss of the regular season, the Sharks were looking to rebound against the Islanders.
“I think losing the way we did last night,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer asserted to Dan Rusanowsky, adding, “Everyone was disappointed in the way we played.”
Aaron Dell made his first NHL start, Joel Ward played in his 600th career game, and for tonight, Michael Haley replaced Matt Nieto.
Melker Karlsson finished a pass from Tommy Wingels for his first goal of the season. The Sharks opened the scoring, taking a 1-0 lead 5:36 into the game. Dell didn’t have much work to do, as the Islanders had no shots on goal in the final 12:57 of the first period.
The Sharks led 1-0 after the first, outshooting the Islanders 10-4.
Michael Haley left the game at 12:11 of the second period, but ended up reuniting with Karlsson and Tommy Wingels in the fourth line.
Anthony Beauvillier scored his first career goal when he finished a backhand shot from behind the net, tying the contest 1-1 at 9:39. Just 2:10 later, Anders Lee took a pass from Jason Chimera and shot the puck top-shelf to score his first goal of the season to put the Islanders up 2-1.
The Sharks responded to the Islanders when Joe Thornton’s superb pass deflected off Tomas Hertl’s leg and flew past Jaroslav Halak, evening the score 2-2 with 1:57 left in the second.
The contest was tied 2-2 after two periods, and the Sharks outshot the Islanders 19-17.
The Sharks’ first line displayed exceptional execution late in the third period. Joe Pavelski picked up Thornton’s pass and sent it top shelf over Halak for the go-ahead goal. Then, Pavelski went to the penalty box for delay of game when he shot the puck over the glass.
San Jose took a timeout with 19.9 seconds left and went on to beat the Islanders 3-2. The Islanders have never lost a game in regulation to a Western Conference team in Brooklyn until today.
Aaron Dell made 21 saves in his NHL debut with the Sharks. Jaroslav Halak made 24 saves for the Islanders.
Up Next
The Sharks head to Consol Energy Center to face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. EST on CSCA, ROOT.
