Mason Marchment’s goal at 10:50 of the third period left San Jose 9:10 to protect a 3-2 lead. Yaroslav Askarov stopped five Vancouver shots after Marchment’s finish, including Filip Chytil’s attempt with 19 seconds remaining. Those saves completed a seven-save third period.
The Sharks closed out a 3-2 victory over the Canucks at SAP Center, but the ending should not blur how the game turned: Askarov kept the deficit survivable, then Will Smith and Marchment supplied the comeback.
San Jose’s goaltender was not responsible for creating the 11-second scoring burst. He was responsible for making sure the Sharks had time to find one. Vancouver led 2-0 after 40 minutes, and the visitors had spent much of the night making San Jose’s attack look late to its own game.
A goalie cannot erase that sort of deficit by himself. Smith and Marchment did the erasing.
The first period offered the clearest example of Askarov’s value. Vancouver sent 12 shots toward him, and he stopped 11. Drew O’Connor scored at 13:21, with Elias Pettersson credited with an assist, while San Jose managed eight shots in the period.
The 1-0 score left the Sharks behind, but it did not leave them buried. One more Vancouver goal would have changed the character of the chase considerably.
Liam Öhgren provided that second goal with 1:04 remaining before the second intermission. Vancouver had six shots in the frame to San Jose’s seven, so this was not a flood of chances reflected in the shot count. It was a damaging late-period finish that sent the Sharks into the third with no margin for a slow start.
Askarov’s 11 first-period saves and the relatively modest second-period workload had preserved a reachable game; the offense now had to use the opportunity.
The response began with a power play. Jonathan Lekkerimäki was penalized for interference at 6:59 of the third, giving San Jose its fifth man advantage. Smith scored at 8:00, with Dmitry Orlov and Marchment receiving the assists. The Sharks finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while Vancouver went 0-for-3, so special teams helped open the door without carrying the entire comeback through it.
Smith then walked through that door again. His even-strength goal at 10:39, assisted by Macklin Celebrini and Michael Kesselring, tied the game 2-2. The two finishes came in different situations and within 2:39 of one another: first the power play, then five-on-five.
Smith had three shots and played 17:44, but the more important contribution was his ability to turn the same third period into two different kinds of offense.
Marchment completed the reversal 11 seconds later. Kiefer Sherwood and Nolan Allan assisted on the 10:50 goal, which gave San Jose its first lead. Marchment had also assisted on Smith’s power-play goal, finishing with a goal and an assist in 17:36.
