On Tuesday night, the San Jose Sharks were back on the SAP Center's ice for the first time since April as they hosted the Vegas Golden Knights for their first home preseason game of the 2026-27 season.
In the opening moments, Dmitri Orlov showed some signs of summer rust as he gave the Golden Knights a prime scoring chance with a turnover in the neutral zone. On the other end of spectrum, Ethan Cardwell continued to show why he is in the battle for an NHL job as he had a phenomenal first shift starting with maintaining possession in the defensive zone and ended with a shot on goal.
A broken stick gave the Sharks' fourth line a decent chance roughly five minutes into the game, as the Golden Knights' pass was off line and landed directly on the blade of Patrick Giles, although nothing came of it.
Alex Wennberg caught a puck up high on his birthday, causing a whistle with 12:59 remaining in the first. Nolan Allan then went on to make his presence felt with a huge old-school body check on Alexander Holtz.
In the middle of the period, the combination of Michael Misa and Igor Chernyshov seemed to be thriving, as they were generating some solid changes in transition. Patrick Giles on the other hand had a dangerous giveaway behind the Sharks' net, but he immediately made up for it with a massive hit just a second later.
Luca Cagnoni almost connected with Misa for a deflection in front of the net at one stage but it bounced off the post, then moments later, the young defenseman hit the pipe on his own shot.
After 20 minutes of play, the score remained deadlocked at 0-0 but the Sharks had generated some quality scoring chances.
Collin Graf appeared to have an equipment issue right off the draw to start the second period, causing the Sharks' lines to be jumbled for a bit while he got his skate blades replaced on the bench.
The Sharks somehow didn't score a goal with 11:36 remaining in the middle frame. A sprawled out Carter Hart was able to deny a backhand chance by Stenberg, that should've found the back of the net. A minute later, Yaroslav Askarov had a bit of showmanship himself, raising his glove up in the face of Jonas Rondbjerg after a glove save.
The second period seemed to fly by with few specific notable moments. Luca Cagnoni and the aforementioned Askarov were definitely the standouts of the period, as Askarov appeared to have much more confidence. Cagnoni also had quite a bit of confidence and was timing his pinches from the blue line perfectly and helping generate offense from the blue line, even if the Sharks had yet to score in the "Power Bite Farewell Tour."
Michael Misa finally broke the deadlock, and officially got the previously mentioned Farewell Tour underway, when he scored a power play goal 4:16 into the third period. The power play had generated quite a few chances, but one finally made its way past Hart. The Sharks' lead didn't last long though, as Alex Holtz tied it up for the Golden Knights four minutes later.
Cagnoni got outmuscled heavily in front of his own net around the midway point of the period by Jakub Demek. Given Demek's seven-inch height advantage and 32 pounds on Cagnoni, it's not unexpected, but does show one of the Sharks' defenseman's biggest flaws. With his stature, he's going to be pushed around fairly regularly by bigger opposition and there's obviously nothing that can really be done about that.
Tyler Toffoli and Igor Chernyshov had an opportunity to restore the Sharks' lead on a nice give-and-go passing play, but despite Hart being out of position, Toffoli got the shot off too late and put it in the side of the net rather than scoring.
The game remained tied throughout the rest of the third period and went into overtime. Despite quite a few chances for both sides, neither team scored in the 3-on-3 period and the game went to a shootout.
The Sharks ultimately went on to fall in the shootout, losing to the Golden Knights 2-1.
