Sharks Give St. Louis the Blues; Spoil Home Opener With 3-2 OT Win

The San Jose Sharks were on national broadcast for the first time this season on Thursday as they visited the St. Louis Blues. Much to the chagrin of the Sharks, and likely ESPN, Macklin Celebrini was unavailable for the second straight game as he continues to recover from a lower-body injury.

The Blues got out to an early lead as Connor McMichael continued his hot start to the season, scoring his second goal of the season for his fourth point in his four games. St. Louis continued applying considerable pressure on Alex Nedeljkovic following the goal. 

Michael Kesselring took the first penalty of the night at 7:28 in the first period when he cross-checked Blues forward Jimmy Snuggerud. The Sharks penalty kill held strong, holding the Blues without a shot during their first power play opportunity. 

The Sharks got their first chance on the power play at 10:30 in the period, as Adam Jiricek tripped up Collin Graf. The Blues killed off the penalty.

Cam Fowler nearly doubled the Blues' lead with a wrist shot from the point, but his shot was just off-target as it hit the post after a Dylan Holloway deflection.

The game would remain 1-0 heading into the first intermission, but the Sharks were being outshot 11-3 which showed how one-sided the first 20 minutes were. 

The Sharks got another man advantage at 6:39 in the second period, when Blues netminder Joel Hofer took down Michael Misa along the side of the Blues net. The penalty was served by Snuggerud.

Shortly after the penalty expired, Tyler Toffoli scored his second of the season, while being cross-checked by Colton Parayko, to make it 1-1 right before the halfway point in the game.

Joel Hofer denied Luca Cagnoni on what seemed like a sure-fire goal 14 minutes into the period, keeping things deadlocked. Moments after that, Alexander Wennberg drew a slashing penalty that caused Fowler to go to the penalty box as the Sharks got another opportunity on the power play. 

The Blues nearly scored a short-handed goal late in the power play, but Dillon Dube wasn't able to control the puck. The Sharks' man advantage ended early as Ivar Stenberg was called for a slashing penalty of his own with seven seconds remaining. The Sharks were once again able to kill off the Blues' shortened power play.

Former Anaheim Duck Mason McTavish nearly restored the Blues' lead late in the period, but his one-handed shot attempt was denied by Michael Kesselring. Seconds later, the Blues were awarded a delay of game penalty, as Brandon Carlo shot the puck out of play.

Dube got his short-handed goal in the third period, giving the Blues their second lead of the night while Carlo sat in the penalty box. 

Collin Graf's first goal of the season tied things up once again, off of a nice feed by a pinching Sam Dickinson. 

Kiefer Sherwood kept the game tied by deflecting the puck over the net with just over a minute remaining in regulation, denying a clear-cut goal. 60 seconds later, the game went into overtime. 

Ivar Stenberg found Darnell Nurse in quite a bit of space just over a minute into overtime and the veteran defenseman scored his first goal in teal to secure a 3-2 win.