‘Team effort’ sparks miraculous Sharks comeback in first win of season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Sharks’ first win of the 2024-25 NHL season didn’t come easy.
San Jose pulled off an incredible comeback in the final five minutes of Monday’s game against the Utah Hockey Club, overcoming a three-goal deficit to force overtime and emerge with a 5-4 victory on Alexander Wennberg’s victory-sealing goal.
Despite scoring the game-winning goal in overtime, Wennberg made sure to credit the Sharks as a whole after the team stayed the course and snapped its historic nine-game losing streak to open the season.
“Obviously a tough start to the season. We’ve been working hard and just having to find a way,” Wennberg told Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda on “Sharks Postgame Live” after the win at Delta Center. “We talked about never giving up, though, [and] it shows here. We just keep fighting, keep fighting. …
“I think we really earned a win today, and first of all, give it to the head coach [Ryan Warsofsky], first win as well. It’s just a full team effort, and we for sure are going to take this with us.”
It was a team effort, indeed. Trailing 4-1 with just under five minutes remaining in the third period, Fabian Zetterlund scored his second goal of the game to cut Utah’s lead to two.
San Jose’s fight didn’t stop there. Mikael Granlund stayed hot with his fifth goal in four games, putting the Sharks within striking distance as the clock ticked away.
Tyler Toffoli’s game-tying goal with 2:42 remaining in regulation ultimately sent things to overtime, and the rest will be remembered as the miracle in Utah.
The win allowed the Sharks to sigh a breath of relief, just one game after setting an NHL record with nine-game losing streaks to begin consecutive seasons. For Toffoli, he and the rest of the Sharks knew they would end up in the win column eventually.
Now, the task is staying there.
“I think we’ve believed in ourselves the whole time,” Toffoli told reporters after the game. “It’s been frustrating at times, but at the end of the day, it’s only one win and we’ve got to build off of it. We’ve got to get better, and we’ve got to keep grinding. We’ve got to keep working and keep getting better and keep having fun. …
“It’s fun to win in hockey.”
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