Sharks Score Three in 170 Seconds — Canucks' Nightmare Gets Worse
GOATIFYVancouver had a two-goal lead, a road arena growing restless and a chance to turn one hard-earned win into the beginning of something better. Then the third period happened. Will Smith scored twice, Mason Marchment struck just 11 seconds after the equalizer, and the San Jose Sharks turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 victory with three goals in only two minutes and 50 seconds on October 29.
For the Sharks, the comeback ended a two-game skid and supplied a flash of what their young core can become. For the Canucks, it was a brutal reversal: a team that had finally stopped a ten-game losing streak in Anaheim now had only one victory in its past 12 outings. Their record fell to 3-11-1, and another winnable night disappeared in a handful of shifts.
The extraordinary part was not simply that San Jose rallied. It was how quickly Vancouver lost control after spending nearly 48 minutes protecting its lead. The goals tell one story; the decisions and defensive details around them explain why the result matters beyond the standings.
Vancouver had a 2-0 lead — and San Jose had earned its frustration
Vancouver did not arrive in San Jose looking like a team that could comfortably dictate a game. Its 3-11-1 record told the story of a dreadful opening month, and the victory over Anaheim two nights earlier had required an improbable late comeback of its own. Yet the Canucks gave themselves a real chance to build on that result. They limited San Jose to manageable opportunities for much of the first two periods, survived repeated penalties and scored first without needing a spectacular individual play.
Drew O'Connor opened the scoring at 13:21 of the first. Elias Pettersson kept the puck alive at the blue line and sent a shot toward Yaroslav Askarov. The rebound spilled into the dangerous area, where O'Connor drove to the net and finished. It was a simple goal created by puck retention, traffic and a forward willing to arrive in front of the crease. Those are exactly the kinds of details a struggling club needs to repeat.
San Jose was generating chances of its own, including an early opportunity for NHL debutant Filip Bystedt, but the final touch kept disappearing. The Sharks had already gone scoreless in their previous outing against Buffalo. Their offensive drought eventually reached 115 minutes and 33 seconds before the comeback began. That kind of run can turn ordinary missed chances into visible tension, particularly at home against the team sitting at the bottom of the standings.
Vancouver's second goal came with just 64 seconds left in the middle period. Liam Ohgren took the puck in from the right side, moved into shooting position and beat Askarov over the blocker at 18:56. It was his second straight game with a goal and gave the Canucks a 2-0 cushion heading into the final intermission. At that stage, their defensive work appeared to be buying time for an offense that had not needed much possession to build a lead.
That lead was more fragile than it looked. Vancouver had to kill multiple San Jose power plays, and every successful penalty kill required another defensive-zone reset. The Canucks' goaltender, Leevi Merilainen, had done enough to protect the score, but the team had not established a way to relieve pressure consistently. A two-goal lead is valuable; it is not a substitute for controlling the next shift.
The important distinction is that Vancouver was not hopeless for 60 minutes. It played enough effective hockey to put San Jose under pressure, then failed to preserve the same standards when the game became more frantic. That makes the defeat harder to dismiss as a simple talent mismatch. The Canucks had built the situation they wanted. What followed was a breakdown in execution.
Will Smith flipped the game — Marchment finished it 11 seconds later
The first opening came on the power play. San Jose had failed to score on its first four advantages, but another Vancouver penalty gave Smith the chance to change the direction of the night. At 8:00 of the third, Dmitry Orlov moved the puck to him near the right point. Smith stepped into space and drove a wrist shot past Merilainen's blocker. Suddenly the Sharks had a goal, the crowd had a reason to believe, and Vancouver had to defend a one-goal lead rather than a comfortable two-goal margin.
The second Smith goal was a different kind of finish. At 10:39, Michael Kesselring sent a shot wide, Macklin Celebrini touched the puck into the scoring area, and Smith connected with a one-timer that beat Merilainen high. The equalizer was also another reminder of how Celebrini can shape a game without being the player who scores. The Sharks captain collected his 16th point of the season on a play that turned a broken sequence into a decisive chance.
Vancouver barely had time to absorb the equalizer. Eleven seconds after the puck went in, Mason Marchment attacked from the left wing, drove down the boards and released a wrist shot that deflected off the bottom of Merilainen's glove. San Jose led 3-2 at 10:50. Three goals had arrived between 8:00 and 10:50, a span of 170 seconds. Smith and Marchment's two goals in 11 seconds tied for the seventh-fastest pair in Sharks franchise history.
The difference between the first and third goals is revealing. Smith's opener came through special-teams execution, the equalizer through awareness around a missed shot, and Marchment's winner through immediate north-south pressure before Vancouver could reset. San Jose did not discover a single magic tactic. It found three ways to punish a team that had begun reacting rather than anticipating.
Marchment's goal also justified the importance of adding an experienced finisher alongside San Jose's younger stars. The Sharks signed him to a five-year, $33.75 million contract in July. His fourth goal of the season was not a decorative addition to the box score: it was the first time San Jose led all night, and it arrived while the opponent was still recovering from the previous shift. That is the sort of opportunistic scoring a rebuilding team cannot expect from prospects alone.
Smith deserves the headline because his two goals unlocked the comeback. But the winning sequence also belonged to Celebrini, Marchment and the teammates who kept attacking after the equalizer. Young teams often learn to be satisfied with reaching 2-2. The Sharks kept pressing, and Vancouver's transition from confidence to confusion was almost immediate.
Vancouver's biggest opponent is becoming its own late-game detail
Vancouver coach Manny Malhotra pointed to the small decisions that disappear when the pressure rises: faceoffs, shot blocks and defensive-zone details. Those are not glamorous talking points, but they are the difference between protecting a lead and inviting another attack. The Canucks had already shown they could create enough offense to lead 2-0. What they could not do was keep the game in a predictable rhythm once San Jose finally scored.
The final score was especially cruel because Vancouver had just ended a ten-game losing streak with a 6-5 overtime win in Anaheim. That game required the Canucks to rally from a three-goal deficit late in regulation. Two nights later, they were on the opposite side of the same emotional swing. A team can take encouragement from its ability to stage a comeback, but repeated reversals also reveal how little control it has over the state of a game.
The numbers underline the problem. Vancouver dropped to 1-10-1 over its previous 12 contests, with a 3-11-1 overall record. Those are not the results of a single unlucky bounce. They reflect a prolonged inability to combine decent stretches of play into complete wins. The Sharks needed just 170 seconds to erase a lead that Vancouver had protected for nearly 48 minutes, and that contrast will be difficult for the Canucks to ignore.
Merilainen finished with 21 saves on 24 shots. His glove was involved on Marchment's winner, but reducing the entire defeat to the goaltender would be an easy way to avoid the broader problem. The equalizer followed a failed defensive sequence around a wide shot. The winner came before Vancouver could restore its structure. Better support around the puck and a cleaner next shift might have prevented either chance from developing.
Vancouver did get one last opportunity. A late San Jose penalty, combined with the decision to pull Merilainen, produced a six-on-four advantage in the closing minutes. The Canucks had the manpower to rescue a point, yet Askarov and the Sharks penalty killers survived. That final sequence mattered because it showed the difference between possession and actual leverage: Vancouver had extra skaters, but could not manufacture the equalizer it needed.
Pettersson extended his point streak to six games, and Ohgren scored for a second straight outing. Those are meaningful individual positives, but they will not stabilize the standings on their own. Vancouver's challenge is collective: convert offensive contributions into sustained puck control, finish shifts cleanly and stop letting one conceded goal turn into another before the bench can respond.
The Sharks have a young core worth believing in — and a warning worth hearing
The Sharks improved to 7-6-1 and ended a two-game losing streak, but coach Ryan Warsofsky had reason to be cautious about treating the finish as proof that everything is working. San Jose went scoreless for almost two full games before Smith's first goal. The offense had trouble converting chances against the league's last-place team, and the winning burst did not erase the long stretch in which Vancouver looked more comfortable.
That is precisely why the result is useful as a measuring stick. Celebrini can create offense under pressure, Smith can finish from multiple areas, and Marchment can punish a defense that loses its spacing. San Jose is assembling the different types of threats required to win games when its first plan fails. The next stage is learning to activate those threats earlier, before a two-goal deficit becomes necessary motivation.
The comeback also carries a franchise marker. It was San Jose's first regulation victory after trailing by multiple goals in the third period since October 23, 2018, against Nashville. The Sharks have already managed two multigoal third-period comebacks this season, tying Buffalo for the league lead at this early stage. That resilience is encouraging, but repeatedly needing dramatic recoveries is not a sustainable strategy against stronger opposition.
Askarov's contribution can be overlooked in a game remembered for three goals. He stopped 23 of 25 Vancouver shots and was required to protect a one-goal lead after the momentum changed. A key late save on Filip Chytil helped the Sharks survive Vancouver's push. His job was different from Smith's: the forward had to manufacture a comeback, while the goaltender had to make sure it counted.
San Jose also received a glimpse of its next wave when Filip Bystedt made his NHL debut. The 22-year-old, a 2022 first-round pick, recorded two shots in 10:28 and generated an early scoring chance. The appearance was not the deciding factor, but it fits the broader picture of a team trying to blend a growing young core with experienced additions. Celebrini, Smith and Bystedt offer different pieces of that longer-term project.
San Jose hosts Ottawa next, while Vancouver returns home to face Toronto. Neither team can afford to treat this result as a final verdict on its season. For the Sharks, the challenge is to turn a brilliant 170-second stretch into more consistent 60-minute hockey. For the Canucks, it is more urgent: prove that a lead can survive a single bad shift without the entire game unraveling.
Three goals in 170 seconds will make a memorable highlight reel. The more important lesson is how those goals arrived. Smith changed the energy, Celebrini kept the play alive, Marchment attacked immediately, and Askarov protected what the forwards had won.
San Jose should celebrate the resilience without forgetting the slow start. Vancouver must confront the opposite problem: it played well enough to lead and still could not close. A 3-2 final may look ordinary in the standings, but the path from 0-2 to 3-2 says plenty about where both Pacific Division teams stand.
