Hertl’s hat trick leads unlikely rally for San Jose Sharks. Then Eklund ended it

Tomas Hertl started an unlikely third-period rally for the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday against the New York Islanders. William Eklund finished it for the Sharks’ most stunning victory of the season. Eklund scored with six seconds left in overtime as the Sharks beat the Islanders 5-4 at at UBS Arena.

Hertl scored goals 1:41 apart late in the third period, tying the game after the Sharks trailed by three goals with 11:33 left in regulation time. Kevin Labanc started the Sharks’ rally, tipping a Nikita Okhotiuk shot last Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin with 8:05 left in the third period. How unlikely was the win? The Sharks were 0-15-0 this season when trailing after two periods.

The Sharks appeared headed to their third loss in four games after the Islanders took a 4-1 lead on Ryan Pulock’s goal at the 8:27 mark of the third period. The Sharks also gave up a power play goal to Brock Nelson at the 5:27 mark of the second period to fall behind 2-1. Earlier in the third period, Mike Reilly scored shorthanded for a two-goal New York lead.

On Nelson’s goal, with Sharks defenseman Kyle Burroughs serving a hooking penalty, the Islanders were able to gain entry into the San Jose zone before Bo Horvat sent a pass to a trailing Noah Dobson. He quickly found Nelson on the other side of the ice. Nelson then carried the puck closer to the net and fired a wrist shot past goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, as the Sharks gave up a power play goal for the fourth straight game.

Burroughs’ penalty was the only one the Sharks took Tuesday, but it was another indication of San Jose’s small margin for error. The Sharks are now 2-13-0 this season when they allow a power play goal, and four of those losses were decided by two goals or less. Kahkonen finished with 33 saves – including two on breakaways by Pierre Engvall — as the Sharks improved to 2-2-0 on their season-long six-game road trip.

Julien Gauthier scored a first-period even strength for the Islanders. Hertl’s first-period goal snapped his six-game goal drought. Anthony Duclair did the work to chip the puck to himself on a Sharks’ clear before he carried the puck into the Islanders’ end.

He sent one pass to the front of the next that came right back to him, and his second pass to the front found Hertl, who fired it past Ilya Sorokin for his fifth goal of the season. Duclair now had three goals and two assists in his last three games, matching the point total he had through his first 20 games. The Sharks had forwards Filip Zadina and Nico Sturm and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic back in their lineup Tuesday.

Zadina has been on injured reserve since Nov. 27 and Sturm was hurt Sunday morning before the Sharks played the New York Rangers. Vlasic, who had been scratched from eight of the last nine games, took Matt Benning’s spot in the lineup and started Tuesday paired with Calen Addison.

Zadina, who started Tuesday on a line with Jacob MacDonald and Matt Hoffman, was playing for the first time since Nov. 24 when he left the Sharks’ game with the Montreal Canadiens after one period with an upper-body injury. Zadina had two points in eight games before his stint on IR, and three goals and two assists on the season.

Sturm centered a line with Kevin Labanc and Justin Bailey, bringing some stability to the Sharks’ bottom six after Ryan Carpenter had to go on injured reserve on Monday, along with defenseman Ty Emberson. The Sharks now finish the road trip with games against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday and the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday. .