Celebrini has 4 points, Sharks cruise to victory against Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Macklin Celebrini had a goal and three assists for the San Jose Sharks in a 5-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.

“It's always special coming back home,” said Celebrini, who is from nearby North Vancouver and grew up cheering for the Canucks.

Will Smith had a goal and two assists, John Klingberg had a goal and assist, and Sam Dickinson had two assists for the Sharks (27-21-3), who have won consecutive games after alternating wins and losses the previous seven.

Yaroslav Askarov made 23 saves for his first win in four starts for San Jose, which improved to 7-3-0 in its past 10 games despite falling behind just 1:15 into the first period.

San Jose responded with three goals in the next 4:04.

“I think it kind of woke us up a little bit; it was a little sleepy there to start,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Not great coverage on that goal against, but I like their response.”

Tom Willander and Filip Hronek scored, and Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk each had two assists for the Canucks (17-31-5), who have lost three in a row since ending an 11-game skid, and are 1-12-2 in their past 15. Kevin Lankinen allowed three goals on six shots before being replaced at 5:55 of the first period by Nikita Tolopilo, who made 25 saves in relief.

"I don't think we played good anywhere today,” Willander said. “I think pretty much every detail was bad; can't name anything good today. At least the last few times we had results like this, I think we did a decent job in many parts of our game. But today, I thought, was awful."

Willander gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 1:15 of the first period with the teams playing 4-on-4, scoring with a high glove shot from the top of the face-off circles past a screened Askarov.

Celebrini tied it 1-1 just 36 seconds later at 1:51 with the teams still at 4-on-4, one-timing a pass from Smith along the left boards against the grain and past the blocker of Lankinen from the top of the right face-off circle.

“It happened so fast you can't really get put your head up and try to read it. You just try to put it over the pad or pick a nice spot,” Celebrini said. “We kind of woke up a little bit. It's pretty quick, when they scored, and I think we just kind of wanted to get to our game.”

Adam Gaudette put San Jose ahead 2-1 at 4:43 with a one-timer high over Lankinen’s blocker. Celebrini intercepted a Hronek clearing attempt at the blue line and passed to William Eklund at the right hash mark for a quick, short pass to Gaudette at the left hash mark.

Tyler Toffoli extended it to 3-1 at 5:55 on another one-timer from the left hash mark, finishing a pass from Alexander Wennberg at the goal line with a shot between Lankinen’s pads.

“That's what we've done a really good job of this year is when teams kind of push back on us, or try to get on their front foot, we do a good job of just kind of handling it, weathering it, and getting back to our game,” Celebrini said.

Tolopilo, called up from Abbotsford of the American Hockey League on Saturday, then replaced Lankinen. He made several quality saves before Smith’s power-play goal pushed it 4-0 at 9:07 on a wrist shot short side from the left face-off dot over Tolopilo’s right shoulder.

“You never know what could happen in the game, so just prepare a plan. When you go in, do your job,” Tolopilo said. “Overall I had an OK game. Of course, there are some things to work on and probably the first goal, I could play a little bit differently. Just going to look at it and take some things and try to clean up.”

Tolopilo, 25, was making his ninth NHL appearance and figures to play more with news earlier in the day that No. 1 goalie Thatcher Demko will miss the rest of the season to have hip surgery.

“I try to stay present, day by day, and try to get better every day,” he said. “I don't look ahead like that.”

Vancouver failed to convert a 5-on-3 for 1:56 with 3:25 left in the second period before the Sharks got a two-man advantage of their own late in the period to make it 5-1.

Klingberg scored 28 seconds into the third period with a screened shot from between the top of the circles.

“Started with the big kill, that 5-on-3 we got to kill off and then we talked about it after the second period, we got a chance to put the nail in them here, and step on them,” Warsofsky said. “[Kingberg scores] a big goal on the power play 5-on-3, so I think we've learned a little bit of a lesson there. ... you got to keep pushing forward.”

Hronek scored on the power play at 9:15 to cut it to 5-2 on a screened slap shot from the top of the right circle. It was the first power-play goal against San Jose in four games.

Defenseman Vincent Desharnais returned for the Sharks after missing 23 games with an upper-body injury.

“He's electric on the PK, that's for sure,” Askarov said. “He's a big guy. He probably makes more saves than I do, so I appreciate it.”

NOTES: Celebrini spent considerable time around the Canucks as a kid because his dad, Rick, used to work for the team. He has nine points (three goals, six assists) in his four games back in Vancouver. … It was Celebrini’s fourth four-point game in the NHL, tying Jimmy Carson for the fourth most by a teenager in NHL history, behind Wayne Gretzky (14), Sidney Crosby (eight) and Dale Hawerchuk (seven). … Canucks forward Jonathan Lekkerimaki finished minus-1 with four shots on goal in 16:05 of ice time after being called up from Abbotsford on Monday to replace injured forward Brock Boeser (concussion protocol).