On trade deadline eve, Sharks have second period meltdown in latest loss
NHL: San Jose Sharks allow four unanswered goals in the second period to the St. Louis Blues
SAN JOSE — Pavel Buchnevich had four assists, Jordan Kyrou had a goal and an assist, and the St. Louis Blues beat the San Jose Sharks 6-3 on Thursday night on the eve of the NHL’s trade deadline.
Logan Brown, Colton Parayko, Brayden Schenn, Kasperi Kapanen, and Tyler Pitlick also scored for the Blues, who had a four-goal second period to erase what had been a 2-0 Sharks lead. Thomas Greiss made 22 saves for his sixth win of the season.
Alexander Barabonov had a goal and assist for San Jose. Logan Couture and Steven Lorentz also scored, and James Reimer made 17 saves in his 16th loss of the season.
Reimer and forward Nick Bonino, two of the Sharks’ pending unrestricted free agents, are candidates to be traded prior to Friday’s deadline at noon (PST). The Sharks (18-32-12) are in clear sell mode, as they’re now 24 points out of a playoff spot with 20 games left to play.
“The reason we come to camp in September is to win, and when you give that away, it’s tough,” Reimer said. “So when it comes to the trade deadline, there’s no one to blame but yourself. The guy in the mirror is the person who is at fault.
“You look around the room and it’s unfortunate that, to a man, we didn’t pull our weight. To me, that’s the most disappointing thing.”
The Sharks got off to a hot start just 3:50 into the game. Barabanov tucked his 12th goal of the season after Andreas Johnsson gave him an alley-oop pass. The assist by Johnsson was his first point since joining San Jose.
Couture added to that just 2:41 later after Couture blasted a one-timer over Greiss’ glove for his 21st goal.
But the Blues got it going in the second period with three goals in the first 9:30.
At 2:35, Parayko was left alone in the slot for his fourth goal of the season. Kyrou got his 26th after Buchnevich made a sweet pass from behind the net less than three minutes later to tie it at 2.
Brown scored his first goal of the season at 9:30 after Buchnevich yet again made a nice pass into the slot.
The Blues finished off their big second period with a tic-tac-toe play resulting in Schenn’s 17th goal of the season that made it 4-2.
“Just a 180. You can’t play a period like that and expect to win a hockey game,” Sharks coach David Quinn. “We went from playing a good brand of hockey to completely abandoning what we did in the first period. Just very sloppy and individualistic.”
Lorentz kept the Sharks with a short-handed goal 6:36 into the third period. It was his first career short-handed goal.
Pitlick made it 5-3 with 5:08 remaining in the third after a Sharks turnover. Kapanen capped it with an empty-net goal after Buchnevich found him on a cross-ice pass. It was Kapanen’s first goal since the Blues claimed him off waivers.
“The fifth goal was a crusher,” Quinn said. “Just disappointing. The problem is when we make mistakes, they’re of such big proportions that they cost us goals.”
900 CLUB: San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson has now played in 900 career NHL games.
ROSTER MOVES: The San Jose Sharks acquired Vladislav Namestnikov from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Mikey Eyssimont on Wednesday.
UP NEXT:
Blues: Visit the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
Sharks: Host the Washington Capitals.
Staff writer Curtis Pashelka contributed to this report.