By Josh Dubow
The Associated Press
SAN JOSE — Macklin Celebrini scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Yaroslav Askarov stopped a penalty shot and the San Jose Sharks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Monday night to snap a six-game losing streak.
Celebrini received a pass from Tyler Toffoli in the slot and converted for his 16th goal of the season to give the Sharks the lead in the third. Askarov then stopped Drew O’Connor on a penalty shot for the most important of his 32 saves, delivering San Jose a much-needed win.
Mikael Granlund scored in the first period for the Sharks.
Sidney Crosby, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft 19 years before Celebrini went first to San Jose, had scored for Pittsburgh just 24 seconds into the third period to tie the game.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 26 saves.
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Takeaways
Pittsburgh: The Penguins have lost three straight games and seven of nine. They remain mired near the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only Buffalo.
San Jose: The Sharks had allowed at least six goals in four straight games and lost nine of 10 overall before breaking through against the Penguins.
Key moment
The Penguins appeared to score the tying goal with 5:14 left when Michael Bunting’s pass deflected into the net. But the Sharks challenged the play and the officials ruled that Anthony Beauvillier interfered with Askarov and the goal was taken off the board.
Key stat
Will Smith assisted on Granlund’s goal to give him a five-game point streak. Fellow rookie Celebrini has already had a five-game point streak this season, marking the first time two Sharks rookies did that in the same season since Melker Karlsson and Chris Tierney in 2014-15.
Up next
The Sharks play at Seattle on Thursday.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
