On Tuesday Mar. 3, San Jose came off a one-day break after a successful weekend, with victories over Winnipeg and Edmonton. They were set to face another Canadian team, one with a strong, intimidating young core and a fourth place spot in the Atlantic: The Montreal Canadians.
Oliver Kapanen opened the scoring for Montreal just six minutes into period one. His shot deflected off of Sharks D-Man John Klingberg’s stick and up over Askarov’s head. The game was fast paced from the start, each team moving up and down the ice with speed. Montreal’s captain, Nick Suzuki, then took an interference penalty, but Montreal killed it off. However, just two minutes after the penalty was killed, Colin Graf tied the score at one on a feed from Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini. That made for point 84 for Celebrini, his 55th assist of the season.
Only two minutes into the second period, Graf, the loan Shark’s goal scorer, took a tripping penalty against Lane Hutson and went to the box for two minutes. The Sharks managed to kill off the penalty but Montreal took the lead back (2-1) just one minute after the power play ended on a goal from Phillip Danault. Celebrini was then called on a trip against Cole Caufield and he went to the box for two minutes, but San Jose had another successful penalty kill.
Then, the Sharks’ number two overall pick from the 2025 draft, Michael Misa, tied the score at 2-2 on an unassisted goal. Misa is one of only eight players in Sharks history to score a goal in three straight games, up there with Celebrini who has done it three times. Later in the period, Celebrini picked up his second point of the night and his 30th goal of the season on a beautiful effort that started all the way in the defensive zone. He worked against the boards, popped it into the neutral zone for Smith, who poked it out for Graf. Celebrini entered the zone with the puck, tossing it over a defender’s stick, through another’s legs, and went five-hole to take a 3-2 Sharks lead.
26-seconds later, newly-signed San Jose Shark from a Vancouver trade back in January, Kiefer Sherwood had a beautiful offensive effort against the Montreal defense where he threw a diving pass to Alexander Wennberg, who scored the fourth goal for San Jose, giving them a two-point-lead. The second period ended with a 4-2 score and bubbling tension. Montreal’s ethos is getting under their opponents skin. They’re a team of young, spicy players who know how to get in someone’s head. They started giving rough checks and engaging in some extracirculars in the second that were sure to carry over into the third.
If things weren’t already crazy in the second period, the third was even crazier. Sherwood made a routine follow up after a goalie stop and Josh Anderson of the Canadiens took no liking to this choice. He drilled Sherwood so hard his helmet flew off and then went back for seconds when there was absolutely zero retaliation from Sherwood. Mario Ferraro, a San Jose defenseman, then got taken to the ground by Jayden Struble and had several nasty blows laid on his head. Montreal received two minor penalties and San Jose received one. San Jose went on the power play where Smith scored the fifth San Jose goal on assists from Celebrini and Dmitri Orlov, making for Smith’s second point of the night, Celebrini’s third, and a 5-2 San Jose lead.
Shortly after, Vincent Desharnais went to the box for cross-checking, putting Montreal on the power play, where they capitalized and raised the score to 5-3 from an Ivan Demidov slap shot. Only 18 seconds later, Alex Newhook scored a goal of his own and shortened San Jose to a one-goal-lead (5-4). San Jose rookie defenseman Sam Dickinson took a tripping penalty in the mid-third, and with only two seconds left on the power play, Newhook scored again for Montreal from an impossible angle, tying the score at 5-5.
San Jose was not leaving this match quietly, and they really found their legs late in the third period. Montreal continued their efforts at mind-games with San Jose. Adam Gaudette (San Jose) crashed the net for a rebound that wasn’t given up and it made Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobas furious, as he slashed Gaudette. More Canadians rounded Gaudette and took him down, which urged every player on the ice to tie up with one another. Gaudette went to the box for goalie interference and Kirby Dauch (Montreal) went for roughing against Gaudette.
Nobody scored during the 4-0n-4 but, with less than four minutes left in the period, Sherwood scored his first goal as a Shark on a feed from Phillip Kurashev and William Eklund, which proved to be a go-ahead-goal for the San Jose Sharks. With about two minutes left, Montreal was looking to at least tie the game and pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. The Canadiens fired shot after shot on Askarov, whose brilliance in net shined for those two minutes. After a nice poke check by Celebrini, he used his speed to break down the ice with Gaudette in a two-on-one, where Gaudette scored a goal in his first game back from being scratched repeatedly.
The Sharks won 7-5 against the Canadiens in one of the most adrenaline-rushing match-ups this year. It’s clear that this game will be on highlight reels in due-time with how nerve-wracking and exciting it was. It was another four point night for Celebrini, his 24th multi-point game this season. He now has 87 points on the season, fifth in scoring all-league, only three points behind Leon Draisaitl. Celebrini also led his entire time in time-on-ice (22:49).
The Sharks sit with 64 points, three points out of a wildcard spot behind the Seattle Kraken. If they can continue this winning streak and pick up as many points as possible, they might actually have a shot at fulfilling their 2026 playoff prophecy. Although Celebrini is already in the conversation for the Hart Trophy, if he can carry his team to at least the first round, there is no doubt in my mind that he will win it.
