The Boston Bruins round out the California portion of a four-game, pre-holiday road trip Sunday night in San Jose, meeting the Sharks for the first time this season.
The Bruins snapped a two-game skid and won for just the second time in five games with their 2-1 overtime victory at the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.
Morgan Geekie posted his second consecutive multi-goal game. The game-winning tally at 2:27 of the extra session was his 16th goal of the season, one behind Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead.
Last season, Geekie had just two of his career-high 33 goals before the calendar turned to December.
“I mean, I don’t know if last year at this time I would have taken that shot in overtime, just the situation and where I was,” Geekie said. “But it’s easy to build confidence when you have confidence. I think over the last year it’s slowly been building.”
Boston’s forward lineup featured a new look, with Czech natives Matej Blumel, Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak making up the top line. Geekie played on the second line with Alex Steeves and Marat Khusnutdinov.
Coach Marco Sturm shuffled the lineup in hopes of providing more offensive depth and liked what he saw, despite the low-scoring output in Los Angeles, but Jeremy Swayman (31 saves) stood tall to post his sixth win in seven starts.
“I think it was just a better overall fit. We spread it out a little bit,” Sturm said. “We just don’t want to put everything on one line and put the pressure on them all the time.”
Elias Lindholm could be closer to a return from a lower-body injury that has sidelined him since Oct. 30. He skated in practice on Saturday in full.
“We’ll see (when he plays), still going day by day,” Sturm said.
The Sharks had won back-to-back games in overtime and a shootout before a 3-2 Saturday loss to the Ottawa Senators, but are searching for their first regulation triumph since the end of a seven-game point streak Nov. 11.
John Klingberg and Barclay Goodrow scored San Jose’s goals, but in a game that was tied 2-2 more than halfway through the third period, difficulty in the faceoff circle — winning just 24 of 51 draws — proved to be a key factor.
“We couldn’t win a puck at all, defensively or offensively,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “When you don’t win pucks, you basically just skate and chase it. That’s what we did.”
Warsofsky’s team managed just 19 shots on net and allowed a power-play goal for the first time in five games. Their own power play scored for the fourth time in six contests.
“It definitely wasn’t our best game,” Goodrow said. “We were spending way too much time in our own end. I think when we play the way we’re capable of and follow the game plan, it looks good on the ice.”
From the general manager (Mike Grier) and coach on down, the Sharks are chock full of Massachusetts connections.
Macklin Celebrini, who won the Hobey Baker Award at Grier’s alma mater, Boston University, in 2024, has had a torrid sophomore season. He is riding a four-game point streak and has 13 goals and 32 points in just 22 games after registering an assist Saturday.
Celebrini’s linemate and former Boston College star Will Smith is the team’s No. 2 scorer (seven goals, 21 points in 22 games). A more veteran addition has been Northeastern product Adam Gaudette, who scored his fifth goal of the season in Thursday’s 4-3 shootout win over Los Angeles.
“He’s been a nice kind of jack of all trades, of playing different situations,” Warsofsky said of Gaudette.
