NHL Gameday: Sharks down another forward headed into Ducks game

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Programming note – Sharks-Ducks coverage starts today at 7:00 p.m. with Sharks Pregame Live on CSN California

WHERE THEY STAND

Sharks: 12-8-1, 25 points, 2nd Pacific Division
Ducks: 9-8-4, 22 points, 4th Pacific Division

PREGAME NEWS AND NOTES

***The Sharks will try to keep it rolling at home, as they are a perfect 3-0 so far on their five-game homestand, and 7-2 overall. On Friday afternoon, Patrick Marleau’s late score and 26 saves by Aaron Dell pushed the club to a 3-2 win over the Islanders. 

Anaheim brings a three-game losing streak into tonight’s meeting, going 0-2-1 over that span, including a 3-2 loss to the Blackhawks on Friday afternoon at home in which it had a 36-25 advantage in shots.

“They outshot and outchanced Chicago, just didn’t win,” Pete DeBoer said. “They’re going to be desperate. This is a swing of either we’re up five [points] or we’re up one. That’s a big swing at this point of the season. It’s an important game to both teams.”

***The Sharks lost yet another forward on Friday when Tommy Wingels left in the first period with a lower body injury. He joins Melker Karlsson and Tomas Hertl on the shelf, and was termed as day-to-day by DeBoer on Saturday morning. He won’t play against Anaheim.

Ryan Carpenter and Barclay Goodrow have been recalled from the Barracuda. At least one of them will make his Sharks season debut against the Ducks.

“We’ll make a game-time decision on who’s in and who’s out,” DeBoer said.

***The Sharks’ depth players have been producing lately, including Chris Tierney, who brings a three-game point streak into Saturday. Matt Nieto, who has struggled to keep his place in the lineup, has been effective, too.

“We need that,” DeBoer said. “The depth of this team is always we’ve been something we’ve talked about and always been key. It’s a real race to three goals here, and it’s not realistic that [the top line is] going to score three goals every night. Our power play has been chipping in, but not consistently enough lately. So, we have to get some depth scoring and contributions from those guys.”

KEEP AN EYE ON...

Sharks: Matt Nieto. After he was scratched for eight of nine games, Nieto has played the previous six and made some nice plays. Against the Islanders, his saucer pass to Chris Tierney helped to generate Joe Pavelski’s score, and he also rang a shot off the post. The Long Beach native has four points (1g, 3a) in 12 career games against the Ducks.

Ducks: Jakob Silfverberg. The right wing has been Anaheim’s most consistent scorer of late, with nine points (4g, 5a) in the last seven games. He potted one of the Ducks’ two goals in their loss to Chicago on Friday afternoon.

PROBABLE LINES

Sharks
Patrick Marleau – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Joonas Donskoi – Logan Couture – Joel Ward
Mikkel Boedker – Chris Tierney – Matt Nieto
Micheal Haley – Ryan Carpenter – Kevin Labanc

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – David Schlemko

Martin Jones (starter)
Aaron Dell

Ducks
Rickard Rakell – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano – Ryan Kesler – Jakob Silfverberg
Nick Ritchie – Antoine Vermette – Ondrej Kase
Ryan Garbutt – Chris Wagner – Logan Shaw

Cam Fowler – Sami Vatanen
Hampus Lundholm – Josh Manson
Shea Theodore – Kevin Bieksa

John Gibson
Jonathan Bernier

INJURIES

Sharks: Tommy Wingels (lower body), Melker Karlsson (left foot) and Tomas Hertl (right knee sprain) are out.

Ducks: Nic Kerdiles (concussion), Nate Thompson (Achilles surgery), Simon Despres (concussion), Clayton Stoner (lower body) and Joe Cramarossa (lower body) are out.

QUOTEABLE

"It was just get right back out there and go after it. You don't like to see another team tying it up that late in the game, but I think we had the right mindset going right back out there and trying to get the win right away." – Patrick Marleau, on his late game-winning goal on Friday against the Islanders

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