GLENDALE, Ariz. — Aaron Dell continues to manage every situation that’s thrown at him with poise.
The Sharks backup goalie posted a .931 save percentage as a rookie last winter. He stopped 61 of 63 shots when he received back-to-back starts for the first time in his career earlier this season and he stoned three Arizona Coyotes snipers in his first NHL shootout Tuesday, making sure the Sharks didn’t allow a crucial point to slip through their fingers.
Dell also carried the Sharks into the shootout, making 15 saves on 16 shots after the Coyotes tilted the ice in the third.
Here’s what we learned as the Sharks (24-13-6) picked up a 3-2 shootout win over the Coyotes (10-29-7).
1. Joonas Donskoi and Chris Tierney are bringing out Mikkel Boedker’s best game.
Head coach Pete DeBoer envisioned Mikkel Boedker skating on a line with Donskoi and Logan Couture after the Sharks signed the Danish forward to a four-year, $16 million contract in July 2016.
After a disappointing season-and-a-half in San Jose, Boedker might finally be finding a home alongside another centerman after serving as a healthy scratch on Jan. 7.
Like our Sharks Facebook page for more San Jose Sharks news, commentary and conversation.
Boedker extended his scoring streak to three games Tuesday, giving the Sharks a 2-0 lead just 34 seconds into the middle frame with a sniper shot to the top shelf.
The 28-year-old forward admitted that getting benched in the Sharks final game before the five-day bye gave him a jolt.
“You never want to be healthy scratched, so there’s always some sense of wanting to get back into things,” Boedker said. “I know what I have to do, and I know what I can do. I’ve just got to keep on doing it.”
In addition to the kick in the pants that he received from DeBoer, Boedker is benefitting from skating on a line with two more players who are actively providing responses to criticism from their coach.
Get Sharks news in your inbox. Sign up now for the free Sharks Report newsletter.
The Boedker-Tierney-Donskoi combination should be called the “snap back line” because DeBoer and general manager Doug Wilson openly challenged each player to produce comeback seasons back in training camp.
Both Tierney and Donskoi delivered in the first half of the season, but Boedker’s production lagged as he registered just nine points in the Sharks first 40 games.
The line has combined for 11 points since DeBoer put them together on Saturday.
“It shows on the ice that it’s working really well. They’re two really good players. We feed off of each other’s strengths,” Boedker said. “We know where each other are going.”
DeBoer isn’t one to carve a line combination into stone, but the coach is cautiously hopeful that he’s finally found the right mix to bring out Boedker’s best game.
“You hope so. I’d love to leave those guys together for the next three years,” he said. “But the players decide that.”
No one can blame DeBoer for tempering his excitement over what he’s seen from Boedker the last three games. Even Boedker admitted back in training camp that he will be judged by his ability to play with a consistent compete level.
Boedker showed promise by recording nine points in 13 games last December after getting benched for the third period of a game in late-November. But his game took a backslide in early January and he went back into DeBoer’s doghouse, serving as a healthy scratch twice in the Sharks Stanley Cup playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers in the spring.
Keep in mind, Boedker has also benefitted from playing against the woeful Coyotes twice in less than a week and DeBoer removed him from the game’s final 6:04 Tuesday for defensive purposes, which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of his game.
2. The meltdown in Ottawa wasn’t a total anomaly.
DeBoer chalked up the Sharks third period meltdown in Ottawa on Jan. 5 as “one of those nights” that inevitably happen over the course of an 82-game season.
The three-goal collapse seems like less of an anomaly in the wake of the Sharks dismal third period against the league’s worst team Tuesday.
After the Sharks went up 2-0, the Coyotes got some life with 3:55 left in the middle stanza when Jordan Martinook redirected a Jason Demers shot past Dell. The Coyotes poured it on in the third, tilting the ice and holding a 23-4 shot attempts advantage with seven minutes left the frame.
They scored the equalizer when Brad Richardson found the net off a rebound at the period’s 6:10 mark.
Are the Sharks running out of gas in the second game of back to backs or are they sagging with leads against bottom-feeding opponents?
According to DeBoer, it was more the former against Ottawa and perhaps the latter Tuesday.
“Ottawa was a little different. We’re on the end of (four in six nights),” he said. “I really don’t think fatigue was the issue tonight. I just think we stopped playing, they grabbed the momentum and we couldn’t wrestle it back.”
3. Sharks regain playoff position.
After Dell closed the door on the Coyotes in the shootout, all that mattered was that the Sharks earned two crucial points.
The win catapulted the Sharks past the Los Angeles Kings into a playoff spot after they’d fallen out of the mix during the bye. The Sharks are now tied with the Calgary Flames for second place in the Pacific Division.
Beating the Coyotes also improved the Sharks record to 3-0 since the bye and it gave them an 11-2-3 record within the division.
“The wins are good. You slide back in (to the playoffs) but there’s no room for a breath right now,” captain Joe Pavelski said. “All these games are important.”
