Sharks falter on penalty kill in loss to Golden Knights

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Sharks were one of the best teams in the league on the penalty kill throughout the regular season.

San Jose failed to live up to that lofty standard once again Monday night and it greatly contributed to a loss for the Sharks in a game they dominated for the first 29 minutes.

The Knights scored two power play goals over a 3:29 span in the second period to go ahead 2-1 and went on to win 4-3 in overtime at SAP Center. The victory gave them a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals.

“We did a lot of good stuff tonight, but they were very opportunistic,” San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. “We made a couple small errors on the (penalty kill) and they took advantage of it. Their key guys don’t need many looks to stick the puck in the net and you’re seeing that.”

San Jose allowed three goals on the man-advantage in a blowout win in the opener, before the Sharks killed off the only two Vegas power plays in Game 2 en route to tying the series.

The mistakes of Game 1 came back to haunt the Sharks on Monday night.

With San Jose leading 1-0 and controlling the action to the point they held a 27-12 advantage in shots on goal, James Neal put a perfect pass on Colin Miller’s stick at the far post to tie the game at 9:40 of the second period.

Jonathan Marchessault was the next to exploit the Sharks uncharacteristic struggles on the penalty kill. He netted a one-timer from the circle off a great pass from Alex Tuch.

“At the end of the day, that’s been our bread and butter this year,” defenseman Brenden Dillon said of the penalty kill unit. “We’ve been able to rely on that and I think maybe we were taking that a little for granted. We’ve got to get back to what makes us successful on the (penalty kill).”

San Jose was second in the league against the power play during the regular season at 84.8 percent. The Sharks were stout in the first round against Anaheim as well, surrendering just two goals in 12 penalty killing efforts in their four-game sweep.

The unit finally came up with a pair of stops on two Knights power plays early in overtime, but William Karlsson eventually found the net to put the Knights back in front in the series.

“Their two power play goals swung the momentum, but I didn’t think our discipline was a problem,” DeBoer said. “It was just one of those nights.”

Dillon said while the Sharks still remain confident in their ability to kill off penalties, a better strategy is to try to remain out of the penalty box.

“We made some adjustments and were able to get those two killed off in overtime,” Dillon said.

“I think for us, we’d like to keep it 5-on-5. I think we were carrying the play tonight and had momentum after that first goal and then bang-bang, they get a couple and you’re chasing it again.”

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Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.