Celebrini stays hot, helps Sharks recover for OT win against Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Macklin Celebrini scored at 3:47 of overtime, and the San Jose Sharks recovered for a 6-5 win against the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena on Sunday.

Celebrini, who also had two assists, was sprung on a breakaway after Yaroslav Askarov stopped a shot by Brock Faber, which produced a big rebound. He has 10 points (five goals, five assists) during a four-game point streak.

“I'm playing with really good players,” Celebrini said. “I think you have to kind of give credit to your linemates. They support you and they're the ones making the play. So yeah, I mean, I think we've been clicking.”

Celebrini's goal came after Joel Eriksson Ek tied it 5-5 at 17:42 of the third period by deflecting in Kirill Kaprizov's initial shot through traffic.

“We're not happy with the outcome, for sure,” Eriksson Ek said. “I mean, it shows somewhat I think that we have to believe. We keep doing it, keep working, just trying our best to crawl back into those games.”

Michael Misa scored his first NHL goal, and William Eklund had two goals and an assist for San Jose (2-5-2), which went 2-2-0 on a four-game road trip. Askarov made 28 saves.

“First 10 minutes of the game we played really well, we got a 2-0 lead,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We took another penalty and superstar players, that’s where they get their feel. They get their points and now they start feeling good. We woke them up and that was our doing.”

Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman each had a goal and an assist, and Kaprizov and Faber each had three assists for Minnesota (3-5-2), which has lost three in a row (0-2-1) and six of its past seven (1-4-2). Jesper Wallstedt made 19 saves.

“When you go through some of these stretches, it gets hard because they care,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “We want to win and now ... you have to channel the energy the right way and the focus the right way, and I think for our guys, tonight I think it could have went wayward too when we went down, but it didn’t. The bench was good. We continued to push. We found a way to get ourselves back in the game. We tied the game. We had a good overtime. One mistake, or a bounced puck bounces the other way, and it winds up in the back of the net.”

Eklund gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead on the power play at 5:28 of the first period, banking a wrist shot in off Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin.

It was the fourth straight game that Minnesota has allowed the first goal.

Misa made it 2-0 at 13:35 with a rebound at the right post. Misa, who was playing in his fifth NHL game, was a healthy scratch in a 3-1 loss at the New Jersey Devils on Friday.

“It's the easiest first goal I could ask for,” Misa said. “But that's hockey. You have to get to the net, try and score goals. So, I was fortunate enough to be in that spot."

Marcus Johansson cut the deficit to 2-1 at 17:02, tipping in Rossi's initial shot on the power play.

Rossi then scored 32 seconds later to tie the game 2-2. Kaprizov forced a turnover at center ice before skating in on a 2-on-1 rush and passing over to Rossi for a one-timer.

Eklund put San Jose back in front 3-2 at 11:15 of the second period, scoring from the low slot after Philipp Kurashev stripped Kaprizov of the puck.

Ryan Reaves scored 19 seconds later with a deflection of Barclay Goodrow's shot to increase the lead to 4-2.

Hartman cut it to 4-3 at 4:28 of the third period with a quick wrist shot in the slot on the power play.

Tyler Toffoli responded with his own power-play goal to make it 5-3 at 7:52. Celebrini skated down the wing and sent a backhand pass to Toffoli, who scored with a one-timer from the low slot.

Zeev Buium made it 5-4 at 8:28 with a high wrist shot through traffic that deflected in.

"I mean, if you want to try to take something positive out of it, we battled back multiple times from being down by two,” Hartman said. “Obviously, we got to clean it up, giving up goals and quick ones after they get one. The next four shifts after a goal are some of the most important shifts in the game. You either keep momentum or you kind of start losing momentum. Whether we score or they score, we have to make sure everyone's next shift is their best shift of the night."

NOTES: Celebrini recorded his sixth three-point game, which is the eighth-most among active players before the age of 20. The seven active players who had more are: Sidney Crosby (26), Connor McDavid (10), Patrick Kane (10), Connor Bedard (nine), Patrik Laine (nine), Jeff Skinner (eight) and Steven Stamkos (seven). … Wild forward Marcus Foligno missed the game with an upper-body injury. … Kaprizov recorded his 400th career point (190 goals, 210 assists) in his 329th game. He is the fastest player in Wild history to reach the milestone. Marian Gaborik (472 games) held the previous mark.