Disaster averted.

The San Jose Sharks were down 2-0, headed into the third period, against the last-place Vancouver Canucks. They had also gone five periods without a goal and were staring down a potential three-game losing streak.

But three goals in the final frame, a pair by Will Smith, reunited with Macklin Celebrini, and Mason Marchment’s game-winner gave the Sharks a much-needed 3-2 victory.

Yaroslav Askarov continued his strong play, stopping 23-of-25 shots.

Post-game, Smith spoke on how “fun” inspired the comeback win, Marchment praised Kiefer Sherwood, Filip Bystedt talked about his NHL debut, and head coach Ryan Warsofsky shared when he decided to reunite WillMack.

A deeper game story with micro-stats from Stathletes and game action clips, Sharks Insight, will be published soon.

Will Smith

I think it was both. Everyone stood up and had words to say, but even the coach just said, we’re gripping our sticks too tight. It had been a couple periods without a goal, but we were getting chances. So, like I said, we should go out there and play loose.

It’s huge. We don’t like going to overtime every game. To get one, it was a huge block by Goody there at the end. Put his body in the line. To get that [5-on-6] going while we’re defending is big.

Mason Marchment

He’s an unbelievable player. He’s hard to play against. He’s in the other team’s face. Not many guys in this league like playing against him. He’s an awesome guy to play with. We had some great looks there in the third together with [Michael Misa]. He’s a fun guy to play with, that’s for sure.

Filip Bystedt

Ryan Warsofsky

Yeah, big time, big time. We’ve been frustrated, from the coaches, the players, everyone included, with where our game’s at. There’s a lot of potential for our group, but we have to play a certain way. Proud of the group to come back in the third to win a hockey game.

About a minute and a half left in the second period. Obviously, we couldn’t generate anything, and we’ve been trying to work with some things within our lines and try to get some chemistry going, and obviously it wasn’t working. It was just time.

Thought he was really good. It did not look like his first NHL game. The pace was good, smart, play without the puck. Does a great job in the third period, coming back to the middle. Obviously, first chance there on his first shift was impressive.

We got to watch his minutes, but I think there’s potential there. Not having [Zack Ostapchuk], you need a left-handed face-off guy, so that was more so the reason for that.