SAN JOSE — Clayton Keller scored with 43.8 seconds left in regulation time to lift the Utah Hockey Club to a contentious 4-3 win over San Jose Sharks on Saturday night at SAP Center.
With Cody Ceci serving a high sticking penalty, Keller took a pass from Mikhail Sergachev and beat Sharks goalie Vitek Vanecek for his 10th goal.
Vanecek gave the Sharks a chance on Saturday, making 36 saves, but San Jose lost for the fourth time in five games and started its three-game homestand on a sour note.
“I think we just didn’t have a killer instinct to go win a hockey game,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We’re still learning that. It’s disappointing because I thought we came off a long road trip, I thought we dug in, I thought we worked hard and did some good things tonight.
“But in the third period we got to find a way to go win a hockey game.”
The two teams combined for 26 penalty minutes, but the Sharks perhaps felt there should have been more calls, including what appeared to be boarding by Kevin Stenlund for a hit from behind on Macklin Celebrini midway through the game.
The Sharks traded goals in the third period.
After Fabian Zetterlund’s power-play goal at the 5:00 mark, Utah tied it up 4:49 later on an even-strength goal by Michael Carcone, who had a tap-in goal after Stenlund found him open beside the Sharks’ net.
The first game of the Sharks’ homestand went back and forth all night.
The Sharks went up 2-1 on a goal by Mikael Granlund at the 14:11 mark of the second period. But four minutes later, they committed what was then their fourth penalty of the game, with Nico Sturm going off for hooking at the 18:40 mark.
Just 12 seconds later, Nick Schmaltz took a pass from Logan Cooley and beat Vanecek from in close for his fifth goal of the season.
The Sharks allowed a goal to Dylan Guenther at the 7:27 mark of the first period but got that goal back with 5:02 left before intermission.
Wennberg, who was coming off shift in which he fanned on a Grade A chance, took a pass from Barclay Goodrow and fired a shot that beat Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka short side for his eighth goal of the season and the 99th of his NHL career.
Guenther’s goal was his 13th of the season, as he created some space for himself, took a pass from Logan Cooley and fired a shot past Vanecek.
Utah had scored 38 goals in its last 10 games before Saturday, going 6-2-2 along the way.
“Elite skill level in this lineup, so they can make you pay,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said before the game. “Obviously, they’ve got the Guenthers and the (Clayton) Kellers, the skill, so we’ve got to be extremely physical tonight in the defensive zone. We’ve got to take away time and space.”
The Sharks were coming off a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday when they were outchanced 16-2 in the third period, per Natural Stat Trick.
“You look back at that St Louis game, and the third period especially, we just gave up way too much time, space, and motion,” Warsofsky said. “(The Blues) got their (defensemen) rolling, and we’re going to see that tonight with (defenseman Mikhail) Sergachev.
“The big thing tonight is us defending. We’ve got to be committed to it, we’ve got to continue to break out pucks, and when we do those two things, we have a lot of success, and we’re going to continue to harp on that and continue to preach that and be more consistent with it.”
