Sharks vs. Canucks: Will Smith Scores Twice as San Jose Erases a Two-Goal Deficit in 2:50

The boos rained down at SAP Center as the second period ended, and honestly, the Sharks had earned every one of them. Forty minutes, zero goals, a 2-0 hole against a Vancouver team that had been losing for most of October. Then San Jose came out for the third, stopped squeezing its sticks, and flipped the whole night upside down in 2:50.

Will Smith scored twice, Mason Marchment buried the go-ahead goal 11 seconds after Smith's second, and the San Jose Sharks stunned the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Thursday night. For a Canucks team that has now dropped 11 of its last 12, it was another lead that went poof. For the Sharks, it was proof that one period can rewrite just about any script.

Two Periods of Nothing, Then Everything

Vancouver owned the scoreboard for 40 minutes, and the opening goal came straight from a San Jose mistake. Dmitry Orlov tried to clear the puck and got stripped, Elias Pettersson kept it alive at the blue line, and his wrist shot kicked off Yaroslav Askarov's right pad. Drew O'Connor, driving hard to the crease, swept home the rebound at 13:21 of the first for his second goal of the season.

Liam Ohgren made it 2-0 at 18:56 of the second, cutting in from the right side and beating Askarov high on the blocker side from the slot. Filip Hronek drew the lone assist. It was Ohgren's fourth goal of the year and his second straight game with one, and when the horn sounded on the period, the home crowd let the Sharks know exactly how it felt.

Into the third, San Jose had gone 0 for 4 on the power play when it got a fifth chance, and this time it finally clicked. Orlov moved the puck to Smith at the right point, and Smith stepped down off the line and beat Leevi Merilainen on the blocker side at 8:00. Suddenly it was 2-1, the building woke up, and the momentum swung hard.

At 10:39, a Michael Kesselring point shot sailed wide, Macklin Celebrini kept it alive with a quick touch in front, and Smith buried a one-timer high over Merilainen's glove to tie it. Eleven seconds after that, Marchment took the puck down the left side along the boards and let a wrist shot go. It clipped the bottom of Merilainen's glove and dropped in. Three goals, 2:50, game over. Askarov handled the rest.

Smith Goes Off, Askarov Holds the Fort

Smith was the story, two goals in 17:44 that pushed his season total to six. More impressive than the numbers was the timing: the first ended a frustrating night on the power play, the second erased the deficit, and both came while San Jose was still trying to remember how to play loose. He described the mood afterward with refreshing honesty.

"Everyone's kind of gripping their stick a little tight. We just want to go out there and have fun," Smith said.

Marchment, playing 17:36, had the winner, his fourth goal of the season, plus an assist on Smith's first. Celebrini's helper on the tying goal was his 16th point of the season, and he played 22:56. Askarov finished with 23 saves on 25 shots, and he kept the gap at two long enough for the third-period surge to matter.

On the Vancouver side, Pettersson's assist stretched his point streak to six games, with two goals and five assists in that span, according to NHL.com. He played 21:25 and went 13-13 in the faceoff circle. Hronek logged 27:03 on the back end, and Merilainen made 21 saves on 24 shots.

There was also a sweet subplot for San Jose. Filip Bystedt, a first-round pick at No. 27 in 2022 who was recalled from the AHL on Wednesday, made his NHL debut and logged two shots in 10:28. "It was awesome. Exactly how you dream it to be. Good day," Bystedt said.

Loosen Up, Fellas

Ryan Warsofsky's message to his team was not complicated. "The message was pretty clear: just go play, loosen up a little bit. I think we were trying to choke out a goal and choke out a win," the San Jose coach said.

That is the whole game in two sentences. The power-play goal at 8:00 was the release valve, and once the first one went in, the Sharks played like a completely different team. The back-to-back goals 11 seconds apart tied for the seventh-fastest pair in franchise history, per NHL.com, and the last time San Jose scored two faster was Dec. 9, 2022.

Vancouver coach Manny Malhotra did not hide from the result. "It continues to be the biggest problem with our group is the lack of details in key moments," he said, singling out faceoffs and a missed shot block on the penalty kill.

The Numbers From a Wild 2:50

• 2:50: The span of all three San Jose goals.
• 11 seconds: The gap between Smith's tying goal and Marchment's winner.
• 1 for 5: San Jose on the power play, with the lone goal starting the comeback. Vancouver went 0 for 3.
• 27-17: Hits, San Jose's way.
• 20: Vancouver giveaways, two more than San Jose. O'Connor conceded afterward that the Canucks did not manage the puck well enough in key areas.

Where Everybody Stands

The Sharks are 7-6-1 with 15 points and 3-3-0 at home, and they snapped a two-game slide that included a 2-0 home loss to Buffalo on Tuesday. NHL.com notes this was their first regulation win after rallying from a multigoal deficit in the third period since Oct. 23, 2018, and their second multigoal third-period comeback win of the season, tied with Buffalo for the most among all clubs. They host Ottawa on Saturday afternoon, a team they beat 6-2 on the road last week.

Vancouver falls to 3-11-1 with seven points and 2-6-1 on the road. Its previous win, 6-5 in overtime at Anaheim on Tuesday, snapped a 10-game losing streak, and that bounce lasted exactly one game. The Canucks are 1-10-1 over their past 12 and return home to face Toronto on Saturday night.

Be a Goldfish

Ted Lasso fans know the advice: short memory, be a goldfish. The Sharks spent 40 minutes remembering every bad bounce and every missed chance, then spent 2:50 forgetting all of it. O'Connor summed up the other dressing room plainly: "I think our third period wasn't good enough, obviously." For Vancouver, that sentence is starting to sound like a season review.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes and notes from the NHL.com game recap; additional details as reported by the Associated Press.