The San Jose Sharks hope to win back-to-back games for the first time in almost three weeks Tuesday when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers, who have not lost consecutive games in nearly a month.
San Jose won four straight contests from Nov. 4-11, but the team followed that hot run with an inconsistent 5-7-0 stretch that included lopsided losses against the Colorado Avalanche (6-0) and Washington Capitals (7-1).
After losing 4-1 to the Dallas Stars in the opener of their five-game road trip, the Sharks rebounded to top the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Sunday. Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves against his original organization while Macklin Celebrini had a goal and two assists to fuel the offense.
“(Nedeljkovic) was locked in. You could see it from the start,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “He made some huge saves. I liked his third period. He was outstanding (Sunday). We had moments where we saw growth playing with the lead. There’s some improvement we need to continue to work on, but it was a step in the right direction.”
Collin Graf, John Klingberg and Alexander Wennberg scored the Sharks’ other goals in Sunday’s win. Nedeljkovic shined in net but likely will give way on Tuesday to No. 1 starter Yaroslav Askarov.
“I just felt happy that I put us in a position to win, honestly,” Nedeljkovic said. “It’s way more fun winning, whether you give up zero, one or five.”
Philadelphia has won seven of its last 11 games and hasn’t dropped consecutive contests since Nov. 8-12. With both of those defeats coming in overtime, the team hasn’t lost two straight regulation affairs since Nov. 1-2.
Despite their solid play of late, the Flyers came up short against the league-best Colorado Avalanche in Sunday’s 3-2 home setback.
Samuel Ersson made 25 saves for Philadelphia while Sean Couturier scored a goal on his 33rd birthday.
“I thought we had chances to win this game,” said Couturier, who was playing in his 900th career game. “Just felt that at times maybe we gave them a little too much respect and we watched them a little bit. Overall, we competed hard; we were right there until the end.”
Travis Konecny also scored for Philadelphia, marking his second straight game with a goal. The winger has not scored in three straight games since Nov. 11-16, 2024.
“Some people use games as measuring sticks and I think we don’t need to do that anymore,” Konecny said. “We’ve shown we can compete with the best teams, so why not start believing that we should be right there with them?”
The Flyers have won four of their last five matchups with the Sharks. Last season, they won both meetings — a 4-3 shootout win in Philadelphia and a 4-0 triumph in San Jose.
Konecny registered a goal in regulation and another in the shootout in the first victory before netting a tally in the second matchup.
Warsofsky was not pleased with his team’s effort against Konecny — or overall — after the 4-0 defeat on New Year’s Eve.
“We didn’t have anything tonight,” he said. “This wasn’t good enough.”
