Late goal by Hurricanes dooms Sharks in first game since Blackwood trade

Part of goalie Mackenzie Blackwood’s brief legacy with the San Jose Sharks was his ability to keep his team in most of the games he played.

Vitek Vanecek did the same for the Sharks on Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

But the Sharks, under siege for most of the third period, gave up two goals in the final 15:49 of regulation time in a 3-2 loss to Hurricanes at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C.

With the game tied and the Hurricanes pressing, Macklin Celebrini, stationed next to the Sharks net, tried to backhand the puck out of the zone. But Jalen Chatfield stopped it and fired a shot from inside the blue line that beat Vanecek with 2:39 left in the third period.

Vanecek finished with 25 saves, and Luke Kunin scored twice, but the Sharks lost their third straight game and fell to 2-3-0 on this six-game road trip that ends Thursday in St. Louis.

The Sharks still have not beaten the Hurricanes on the road since Feb. 4, 2018. Since then, they are 0-3-3 in Raleigh.

The Sharks on Monday traded Blackwood, their No. 1 netminder, forward Givani Smith, and their own 2027 fifth-round pick to the Avalanche for goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, forward Nikolai Kovalenko, Colorado’s 2026 second-round selection, and a conditional fifth-round draft pick in 2025.

Both Georgiev and Kovalenko dressed for Tuesday’s game, with Georgiev backing up Vanecek and Kovalenko starting on the Sharks’ fourth line with Nico Sturm and Ty Dellandrea.

This season, after beginning the year with a 0-2-2 record, Blackwood had a solid 6-6-1 record and a .916 save percentage in his last 14 appearances. That included a stellar 51-save performance on Saturday in the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.

Among goalies who had played at least 10 games, Blackwood, per Money Puck, was 17th in goals saved above expected (3.9) and 19th in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes (0.221).

“He was kind of our backbone here these first 30 games, so it’s difficult,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Blackwood before the game on the Sharks Audio Network. “You’ve got to talk through it. (But) you go out and move forward, and just like anything in life, when adversity hits you, how do you respond?

“That’s been what we’re going through right now, not just with the trade, but with these last two games, is we’re going through some things as a group, and hopefully we can take them and make it a learning and teaching moment.”

“I know it’ll be tough for our group,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said Monday. “I think our group really likes (Blackwood) and enjoyed playing in front of him.”

Vanecek was making his first appearance since Thursday when he allowed five goals on 12 shots in the opening period of San Jose’s 8-1 loss to the Lightning.

Tuesday, With the Sharks leading 2-1, Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns finished off a pretty passing play and beat Vanecek at the 4:11 mark of the third period with his second goal of the season.

The Sharks have ended a stretch of games against the NHL’s highest-scoring teams. Before Tuesday, Washington (4.04 goals per game), Tampa Bay (3.92), Florida (3.75), and Carolina (3.74) were the top four teams in the league in average goals scored per game.

Smith to IR

Before Tuesday’s game, the Sharks placed rookie forward Will Smith on injured reserve, meaning he’ll also have to miss Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Blues to end the road trip.

The Sharks also activated Barclay Goodrow off IR to take Smith’s spot on the 23-man roster, and he started the game on a line with Kunin and Alexander Wennberg.

Smith, who had been considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury, can be activated as early as Friday. The Sharks play the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday to start a three-game homestand.

It was not immediately clear when Smith was injured, but on Thursday, he was hit by Tampa Bay Lightning forward Conor Geekie in the first period. Smith finished the game but did not practice the next day or play against the Panthers on Saturday.

In 24 games this season, Smith has 11 points, which was tied for sixth-most among all NHL rookies before Tuesday’s games.

Goodrow was placed on IR on Nov. 28, a day after he absorbed a high hit from Ottawa Senators forward Ridly Greig. He had been skating with the team recently. Goodrow has two goals in 25 games this season but is averaging 14:46 in ice time per game and is one of the Sharks’ leading penalty killers.

Forward Klim Kostin was reportedly hit with a shot during the Sharks’ morning skate, forcing him to leave the ice in discomfort. Warsofsky told reporters after the skate that Kostin was being evaluated, leaving his status for Tuesday’s game in question.

Mukhamadullin recalled

The Sharks made no formal announcement but recalled defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin from the Barracuda of the AHL before Tuesday’s game. Indications were defenseman Jack Thompson had been taken off the roster.

Mukhamadullin had six assists in 14 games with the Barracuda this season after he was assigned by the Sharks to the AHL on Oct. 22. Thompson, who has been in the NHL for most of the season, had five points in 14 games with the Sharks.

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