Takeaways: Sharks thwart Wild 4-3 in a shootout in San Jose

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Third time wasn’t a charm for the Wild.

After losing twice to the Sharks in overtime earlier in the season, they were downed 4-3 in a shootout at SAP Center on Wednesday, Dec. 31, to get swept by San Jose and drop their first game on their season’s longest road trip.

“We’re done with them now,” Marcus Foligno said. “That’s a good thing.”

The Wild finished the first half of the season third in the NHL at 24-10-7. This was only their third loss in their last 12 games and their second in extra time.

Macklin Celebrini and William Eklund converted in the shootout, and the Wild were blanked after they rallied in the third period on goals from Marcus Foligno and Mats Zuccarello only 2:07 apart.

Foligno’s goal was his first of the season to snap a 31-game drought dating to last season.

“It’s obviously nice to do that,” Foligno said. “But it was a weird game. I thought we had a lot of possession but didn’t get a lot to the net when we should have. But still good way to battle back and show resilience and get a point.”

The 19-year-old Celebrini, who was named to Canada’s Olympic team earlier in the day, also had an assist and owns 15 points in six career games vs. the Wild after racking up five in San Jose’s previous two victories over them; the Sharks won 6-5 on Oct. 26 and 2-1 on Nov. 11, both in overtime.

But Celebrini also had the turnover behind the net that led to Zuccarello’s tying goal.

“That’s what we do, right?” Jake Middleton said. “We’re down. We’re never out. We got back to our game in the third and got a point out of it.”

Jesper Wallstedt made 25 saves, while San Jose’s Yaroslav Askarov had 20, including a breakaway stop on Quinn Hughes and a glove save on Matt Boldy in overtime.

“I overthought a little bit what they were going to try to do,” Wallstedt said, “instead of what’s made me successful in shootouts is just reading the play and then making my reads or making my moves out of my reads.”

It was the 26th time the Wild have opened the scoring; only Washington has accomplished more (28).

But the Sharks were better in the second.

Chernyshov had the equalizer only 1:14 into the period, accepting a Celebrini pass and unleashing a shot past Wallstedt just as Hughes closed the gap on him.

Then on San Jose’s only power play, Dmitry Orlov (who was struck on the cheek by a Joel Eriksson Ek shot early in the game) kept a clearing attempt by Middleton in the zone, and Skinner hauled Orlov’s pass to the middle for the go-ahead goal with 3:13 to go in the second.

The Wild went 0-for-1 on the power play.

After their deficit doubled 4:16 into the third on Celebrini’s 22nd goal — a wide-open shot after Chernyshov carried the puck low in the zone before finding Celebrini in front — the Wild finally responded.

Foligno connected from near the goal line only 2:24 after Celebrini scored for his first goal since April 12.

Just 2:07 after that, Zuccarello buried a giveaway by Celebrini for another photo finish between these teams that again suited the Sharks.

Zuccarello and Boldy were denied in the shootout.

“They make it hard for us, and we try to make it hard for them,” Zuccarello said. “But they got tons of skill, and they’re playing good hockey.”

This game is an example of what the Wild can work on as they embark on the second half of their season: better consistency.

They had enough pressure to score more in the first period and pull away from the Sharks. But they didn’t, and that missed opportunity, combined with a lull of a second period, had the Wild scrambling to catch up.

“We had some zone time, but it wasn’t threatening enough,” coach John Hynes said, “and I thought we turned some pucks over and gave them a little bit of momentum.”

The Wild did come back in the third, thanks in part to Celebrini’s gaffe, and they certainly earned the point they banked.

Still, ironing out the unevenness from period to period can make the Wild an even tougher team to face the rest of the way.