Sharks' confidence not wavering after loss to Penguins in OT

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Time and time again the Sharks continue to waste power play after power play. 

In Saturday night's 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime at SAP Center, the Sharks jumped out to an immediate 1-0 lead but failed to add on, despite plenty of opportunities with the man-advantage. 

Rudolfs Balcers' first-period goal was one of 41 total shots San Jose took against Penguins goalie Louis Domingue Saturday night. 

One of the main storylines all season has been the Sharks' struggles on the power play, which of course was the difference in a low-scoring affair against a very good Penguins team. 

“Again, I’ll say it," coach Bob Boughner told reporters after the game. "It seems like I keep saying the same thing after every game, but the margin of error is very small when you’re not scoring. That’s exactly what happened tonight again. When we got to overtime, we’ve been a really good overtime team all year but if you’re scoring one goal a game, you have to be perfect on the other side of the puck.

“We did a lot of good things but the only thing we didn’t do is score. That’s not on our power play, I think Pittsburgh is a good team and they pushed. We dominated for the first two periods and we knew they were going to push back in the third. That’s a team that knows how to win and they threw everything they had at us in the third period. It was two good teams going at each other.”

The Sharks have now suffered back-to-back losses to two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. They've played well and they're certainly proud of it, but they feel as if they were owed better outcomes. The Hockey Gods disagree.  

“I felt so,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said when asked if the Sharks deserved a better outcome. “I thought we had a lot of good chances and if we keep creating those chances they’re going to go in soon.

“I feel like our team is honestly playing a great game, I thought the last two games we deserved better," goalie Adin Hill added. "If we just stay the course, keep doing what we’re doing, the results will come.”

Despite the lack of scoring and frustrations on the power play, there are no drastic changes coming. 

“I like our game. If we continue to play this game, we’re going to give ourselves chances to win it and we’re going to win more than we’re going to lose. Stick with it. When you throw up 40 shots on the other team’s goalie or whatever we had the last couple nights and we only scored one goal, it’s going to change.”

From top to bottom, San Jose's roster is proud of the way they're playing despite pucks not bouncing their way. If they are truly this confident in themselves and believe they are destined for success, a short-term memory will be absolutely necessary moving forward. 

“I don’t think it would make any of us or myself a good leader if we dwell on this and don’t move forward," defenseman Mario Ferraro said postgame. "There’s a lot of hockey and we’ve played two really good games. We all have to be leaders right now and we have to stay positive. It definitely hurts not to get the two points but we played a really good game tonight. There’s always going to be moments during the season where we struggle to put the puck in the net, but I think as long as we stick with it, it’ll start going our way. Can’t be negative.”

RELATED: Report: Sharks to make veteran Hertl a contract offer

The Sharks will continue their homestand against another good team, the Los Angeles Kings, Monday night at SAP Center. 

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