Eight Rounds, One Rookie: Stenberg Gives the Sharks a Win They Couldn't Find
GOATIFYBy the time Ivar Stenberg skated in for San Jose's eighth shootout attempt on Monday, November 9, the game had become something more revealing than a November result. Two goaltenders had taken turns refusing to blink, the Islanders had already surrendered two one-goal leads, and the Sharks were one miss away from extending a five-game losing streak that had drained the momentum from their season.
Stenberg supplied the lone shootout goal, beating Ilya Sorokin over the glove, and Yaroslav Askarov completed a perfect eight-for-eight performance at the other end. The Sharks won 3-2 at SAP Center, but the story behind those two points is a useful measure of where both clubs stand: San Jose is learning to recover from mistakes; New York still has to learn how to finish the nights when its best players give it every chance.
Eight rounds made Askarov indispensable — and Sorokin blameless
Eight rounds of a shootout can make a goalkeeper look either invincible or terribly exposed, often on the same evening. In this case, the numbers speak well of both men. Sorokin turned away San Jose's first seven attempts. Askarov stopped every Islanders shooter he faced. Not until Stenberg attacked from the left, moved toward the middle and lifted a wrist shot beyond Sorokin's glove did one player separate himself from a long procession of failed attempts.
The goaltending contest had been underway long before the shootout. Sorokin faced 39 shots over regulation and overtime and made 37 saves. Askarov stopped 30 of the Islanders' 32 shots, enough to keep San Jose within a single play throughout. Those are not identical workloads. The Sharks tested New York's goalie more often, while the Islanders produced periods of concentrated danger without converting an extra chance. Sorokin also denied Macklin Celebrini six times, a telling detail because San Jose's young centerpiece did not have to score for the Sharks to prevail.
There is a tendency to judge shootout losses through the final image: a goalie unable to stop the eighth shooter. That ignores the seven saves that came before it. Sorokin's work effectively provided New York with seven chances to end the contest themselves. Conversely, Askarov's clean sweep cannot be treated as a footnote to Stenberg's highlight. Without that sequence, the shootout would never have reached the point where San Jose's rookie could become the hero.
The broader contrast is striking. The Islanders left SAP Center with one standings point and another example of their goaltender carrying a substantial share of the workload. The Sharks received an unusually clear result from a game in which their young goalie and forward prospect could both own a decisive moment. For a club that entered with one victory in its previous eight outings, finding different ways to stay competitive matters as much as the final score.
San Jose still cannot build a dependable season around repeated overtime escapes. The club finished this game 8-11-1, a reminder of the work remaining before close contests can reliably become regulation wins. Yet Askarov's composure offered a practical foundation. He did not need to erase every defensive mistake; he needed to make the saves that allowed the next shift, and eventually the next shootout attempt, to matter.
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Stenberg and Toffoli turned two broken plays into two comebacks
The Sharks were behind early, and their first comeback started in an area that rarely makes a highlight reel: along the boards. Ben Hutton put New York in front at 6:14 of the opening period, finishing a pass from Simon Holmstrom at the back post. San Jose did not respond with a spectacular rush. Ty Dellandrea disrupted a clearing attempt by Logan Stanley, Tyler Toffoli retrieved the opportunity, and Stenberg redirected a shot from the right circle past Sorokin at 16:41.
That sequence explains why Stenberg's contribution was larger than the final shootout finish. He was present where the puck was going rather than waiting for a perfect pass. The 2026 No. 2 draft pick arrived with expectations that can quickly turn a promising rookie into a headline machine; by this point, he had six NHL goals, level with the rookie goal leaders. Against the Islanders, the important detail was not merely that he scored. He was involved in a recovery play that converted pressure into a tangible change on the scoreboard.
New York moved ahead again just 71 seconds into the second period, this time through Victor Eklund on the power play. The Sharks had to chase the game twice, and Toffoli took responsibility for the second answer. With 12:12 elapsed, and six seconds after a San Jose power play had expired, Dmitry Orlov fired a shot that Sorokin kicked into the left circle. Toffoli followed it, and his effort deflected off Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech before crossing the line. The scorer's first goal in eight games came from staying near the rebound rather than waiting for an uncontested shooting lane.
These two equalizers share a useful tactical lesson: a second effort can rescue an attacking sequence even when the clean initial chance has disappeared. Dellandrea's intervention on the wall created Stenberg's tip; the pursuit of Orlov's rebound created Toffoli's finish. San Jose had struggled to turn possession into results during its losing run. On this night, the players closest to second-chance pucks were rewarded.
Toffoli ended with a goal and an assist, giving the veteran an important supporting role beside the rookie who received the spotlight. Alexander Wennberg also returned after 10 missed games and logged 23:03, though he won only 10 of 26 faceoffs. His return was useful depth, not proof that every structural problem had been solved. The Sharks still trailed twice, still required their goaltender to make 30 saves and still needed the eighth shootout round. But they also found two different responses to falling behind, and their sixth comeback win of the season was not purely a matter of luck.
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Two Islanders leads disappeared despite the night’s best individual efforts
For the Islanders, the disappointment is sharper because the game contained several signs of progress. Hutton had joined the club only days earlier, and in his second game he turned Holmstrom's feed into his first goal for New York. He added four shots and two hits in 14:28, a credible contribution from a defenseman asked to provide immediate help. A team navigating injuries on the blue line would gladly accept that kind of introduction under almost any other circumstances.
Eklund's power-play goal was another genuine bright spot. Brayden Schenn delivered the short pass, and the young forward finished quickly at 1:11 of the second period for his sixth goal of the year and a third consecutive game with a goal. Eklund also registered five hits, reflecting a willingness to influence play without the puck. Matthew Schaefer earned a secondary assist, bringing his teenage-career total to 76 points and continuing a remarkable early statistical trajectory for a defenseman.
Yet the encouraging individual performances never formed a sustained grip on the match. New York led 1-0, then 2-1, and twice let the advantage disappear. The Islanders converted one of four power-play chances and killed all four San Jose opportunities. Those numbers are respectable in isolation, especially for a club forced into an awkward penalty sequence in the third period, but special teams alone could not repair five-on-five periods in which Sorokin was repeatedly asked to rescue the next play.
The late special-teams sequence captured that contradiction. After Mason Marchment drew a double minor for roughing, simultaneous penalties involving Ondrej Palat and Anthony Duclair left the Islanders killing a four-on-three rather than pressing a conventional advantage. Sorokin kept the game tied, including a close-range stop on Celebrini. New York survived the moment, but survival was not a substitute for finding the winning goal. The third period and overtime passed without another breakthrough.
Captain Bo Horvat was clear in his postgame assessment that asking Sorokin to face around 40 shots is not sustainable. The point was not that the goalie had failed. It was that the rest of the team kept making a very strong performance necessary. The Islanders fell to 7-6-4 and extended their winless stretch to four games, with two regulation losses and two overtime or shootout defeats. Their coach saw improvement in stretches, but the missing element remains continuity. New York does not need to dominate every shift; it needs to connect enough good shifts that its next lead survives the next challenge.
San Jose will remember this as Stenberg's eighth-round moment, and rightly so. The rookie scored once to bring the Sharks level in regulation and again to give them the extra point. But the result also belonged to Askarov's eight shootout stops, Toffoli's pursuit of two broken plays and a group that refused to accept either Islanders lead as the final word.
The Islanders can take smaller positives from Hutton, Eklund, Schaefer and Sorokin, but four games without a win require more than reassurance. A 3-2 shootout loss can be painfully close and still expose familiar problems. For the Sharks, an imperfect victory was enough to interrupt a dangerous skid. For New York, another strong goaltending night ended without the result it deserved.
