SAN JOSE – Defenseman Lucas Carlsson scored a go-ahead goal with 3:23 left in regulation time to lift the San Jose Sharks to a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday before a sold-out crowd at SAP Center.
Carlsson, stationed near the Bruins’ net, pounced on a loose puck after Will Smith’s shot was blocked and chipped it past goalie Joonas Korpisalo for his first goal in his first game in a Sharks uniform.
William Eklund also scored, and goalie Alexandar Georgiev finished with 22 saves for the Sharks, who won for the second time in seven games and snapped a 14-game losing streak to the Bruins.
With the Bruins pressing for the equalizer in a 6-on-5 situation, Carlsson also had a crucial block on a David Pastrnak on a shot, giving him an assist on Barclay Goodrow’s empty-net goal with 50 seconds left in the third period.
Carlsson was recalled from the Barracuda on Friday and was playing his first NHL game since Nov. 1, 2022, when he was with the Florida Panthers. Carlsson started the 2023-24 season with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL before he sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a game in Hartford on Feb. 28, 2024.
Carlsson signed a two-year, $1.6 million with the Sharks on July 1, and returned to the ice for the Barracuda on Nov. 16. Carlsson, though, said he didn’t quite feel like his old self again until January. This season, Carlsson has 23 points in 44 AHL games and is getting a shot with the Sharks now with Henry Thrun and Marc-Edouard Vlasic out with injuries.
“It’s one of the worst injuries you can have,” Carlsson said Friday. “The summer was tough, just rehabbing, and then obviously in camp, trying to get back to where I was and then start playing again. It’s been a tough time, but I’m just happy to be back.”
The Sharks scored their first goal on a rush chance at the 2:13 mark of the second period.
After Luca Cagnoni and Eklund created a turnover in the Sharks zone, Eklund got the puck to Macklin Celebrini, who carried it into the Bruins’ end. With three Bruins players eying Celebrini, Eklund had some space near the slot, took the pass from the Sharks’ rookie center and beat Korpisalo five-hole for his 16th goal of the season, matching his career-high.
The Bruins got that goal back at the 16:50 mark of the second period after a Sharks miscue.
Georgiev went behind the net to play a puck sent into the Sharks’ zone. He passed it to defenseman Vincent Desharnais, who couldn’t handle it cleanly as his pass intended for Eklund along the boards was deflected by Cole Koepke out front to Mittelstadt, who fired it into a primarily empty Sharks net to tie the game.
NOTE: Saturday’s game was the 400th of defenseman Mario Ferraro’s NHL career. Ferraro, a second-round pick by the Sharks in 2017, turned pro before the 2019-2020 season and has played eighth-most games by anyone in his draft class.
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