Scott Reedy scored twice to highlight San Jose’s three-goal first period and the Sharks held on for a 3-2 victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday to snap a 10-game losing streak.
Rudolfs Balcers also scored a goal for San Jose (30-34-12, 72 points) which won for the first time since a 4-1 victory over Anaheim on March 26. San Jose had gone 0-6-4 since.
Kaapo Kahkonen made 22 saves for his first win in eight games and seven starts with the Sharks. Kahkonen was acquired from the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline on March 21 for defenseman Jacob Middleton and a fifth-round draft pick.
Jack Roslovic scored two goals for Columbus (35-36-6, 76 points), which lost its third straight game. Elvis Merzlikins finished with 25 saves.
San Jose, coming off a 5-4 overtime loss at Minnesota on Sunday, jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 4:39 mark of the first period on a power-play goal. Reedy backhanded in the rebound of Noah Gregor’s shot from the slot.
Balcers made it 2-0 midway through the period with his 11th goal of the season.
Center Thomas Bordeleau, playing his second game with San Jose after starring for a University of Michigan team that made it to the Frozen Four, set up the score by forcing a turnover on the wall in the Columbus zone. He then spun around and passed to Balcers at the edge of the right circle, where Balcers fired a wrist shot past Merzlikins’ glove side for his third goal in four games.
Columbus appeared to cut the deficit to 2-1 later in the period when Adam Boqvist fired a wrist shot past Kahkonen. However, San Jose successfully challenged that the play was offside and the score was overturned.
Reedy then increased the lead to 3-0 with his fifth goal of the season, batting in a high rebound of a Sasha Chmelevski shot from the slot.
Columbus closed within 3-2 in the third period on a pair of goals by Roslovic.
The first came on a power play at the 1:32 mark at the end of a two-on-one with Justin Danforth. Roslovic’s wrist shot went off Kahkonen’s glove and into the top right corner of the net.
The second occurred at 13:33 when a wrap-around pass deflected in off the skate of San Jose’s Tomas Hertl for Roslovic’s 19th goal of the season and seventh in five games.
–Field Level Media