San Jose Sharks vs. Calgary Flames 02/11/2016

With 30 games remaining in the regular season, the 2015-2016 San Jose Sharks sat second in the Pacific Division, posting a record of 28-20-4.

After returning from a grueling road trip, head coach Peter DeBoer decided to place reserve goaltender Alex Stalock between the pipes for Team Teal on Thursday night.

As the first period raged on, however, this proved to be a rather poor decision.

Merely 4:12 into the opening frame, Sam Bennett ripped an unassisted goal past Stalock, propelling the Calgary Flames to an early 1-0 advantage.

Only 1:06 later, the Flames capitalized on a Logan Couture penalty to expand their lead to 2-0, as Mark Giordano fired one towards Stalock, which deflected off of Sharks' defenseman Justin Braun and into the back of the net for a power-play goal.

The resilient Sharks were quick to bring a rowdy SAP Center crowd back into the action, however, as Joonas Donskoi fed Tommy Wingels in the slot for his 6th goal of the year. Still only 8:45 into the game, there were already three goals flashing across the scoreboard.

Alex Stalock's recent instability remained prevalent, nevertheless, as Sean Monahan converted on a pass from Jiri Hudler after a mind-boggling defensive lapse from San Jose. Calgary had scored 3 goals just over midway through the first period.

Seconds later, it was Mikael Backlund whipping an overcommitted Stalock, and the Flames led 4-1.

The Sharks appeared to be stunned -- they were frozen in the midst of their worst period of the season.

Regardless of the overwhelming odds, however, San Jose refused to fall without a fight.

Early in the second period, Brent Burns found Logan Couture for a power-play goal. 

Minutes later, Joe Thornton centered the puck for Patrick Marleau's 17th tally of the season, courtesy of a 5-on-3 man advantage.

Entering the third period, San Jose had trimmed their deficit to 3-4.

As if destined to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, Logan Couture lasered a cross-ice pass for Joonas Donskoi, who knotted the game at 4-4 less than 3 minutes into the closing period.

Later, the unlikeliest of heroes scored perhaps the largest goal of his young career. It was a pass from Joel Ward onto the tape of Dylan Demelo, who fired home the go-ahead goal.

San Jose had scored 4 unanswered to lead the contest 5-4.

Unfortunately, their premature celebration did not last long. Midway through the third, Kris Russell answered for Calgary.

And though the Sharks thought that they had caught their much-needed break when an unfortunate injury caused Calgary to remove their starting goaltender, a brilliant penalty-killing effort from Jonas Hiller and the rejuvenated Flames was more than enough to force overtime.. and eventually a shootout.

As the wild evening came to a close in Round Four of the shootout, Jiri Hudler launched one past Alex Stalock to propel the Calgary Flames to a head-scratching 6-5 victory.

The Sharks will hope for better results on Saturday night against the Arizona Coyotes.