The San Jose Sharks were in town tonight, facing the Maple Leafs for the 2nd time this season. The Leafs lost the prior matchup in San Jose, by a score of 3-2.

Tonight, the Leafs will be facing a challenge, having only won 3 of their last 10 games. A win here would be a great start to righting the ship in the new year.

The first period started off very weirdly, with a Nazem Kadri and Joe Thornton fight! It wasn’t much of a scrap, but to see these two players dropping the gloves was interesting to say the least.

Early in the first, Frederik Gauthier drew an interference chasing a loose puck in front of the Sharks’ net, but the Leafs were unable to score.

Shortly after, San Jose goes to the powerplay as Morgan Rielly gets caught flat footed at the line, grabbing on to Joe Pavelski’s stick to try to prevent a rush chance. The Sharks would also be unable to score.

At the half way mark, it’s become clear that this is a high pace game that the Leafs offense could flourish in, or their defense could fall apart in.

Carrick took a tripping minor with about 8 minutes left, but again the Leafs were able to kill it off.

Auston Matthews tipped home the game’s first goal off of a Carrick point shot:

But the Sharks would follow up shortly after on a somewhat fluke-y goal by Brenden Dillon:

The period ended tied 1-1.

This period was more timid than the previous one, but still provided some action. The Leafs managed to get a lead on a Mitch Marner powerplay goal:

But Andersen would cough that lead up at the end of the second, giving a puck up to Chris Tierney in front of the goal:

That would be it for the 2nd; the period ended with the score tied 2-2.

The third period was largely uneventful! No score, no dramatics, a hard fought period but no scoring. This game would head to OT tied 2-2.

The Sharks had plenty of opportunities early, as they caught Jake Gardiner on a long shift and made plenty of zone time out of it. But they did not score.

Things became more back-and-forth afterwards, until Marner took a hooking penalty. The Leafs would finish this game killing this penalty, successfully or unsuccessfully. It would be unsuccessful, so the game headed to a shootout.

TOR Shooter | Y/N | SJ Shooter | Y/N

Matthews | Y | Couture | N

Marner | N | Pavelski | N

Marleau | N | Labanc | Y

Nylander | N | Donskoi | N

Van Riemsdyk | N | Burns | N

Bozak | Y | Tierney | N

Leafs win in the shootout to get the extra point!

This was an excellent game, lots of action and excitement. The Sharks were an excellent challenge for the Leafs and they held their own, getting the 2 points at the end.

Certain players definitely stood out, including the Leafs’ big 3 of Marner, Nylander and Matthews. Gardiner was also very good tonight, and Marleau looked dangerous as well.

It looked like the 3rd pairing was struggling a bit to contain the Sharks’ deep offense, as Borgman and Polak have typically been sheltered this year, but were unable to avoid tough competition tonight as the Sharks roll 4 pretty good lines.

Andersen obviously coughed up the goal that cost the Leafs the regulation win, but overall he was solid.

My three stars for the night: