Collin Graf's overtime goal gives Sharks comeback win over Wild

Curtis Pashelka, Bay Area News Group on Nov 11, 2025

Published in Hockey

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Collin Graf scored at the 2:40 mark of overtime to lift the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 comeback win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena.

Graf’s goal came on an odd-man rush as he took a pass from Macklin Celebrini and made a forehand to backhand move to beat Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson for his second goal of the season.

Graf’s goal came after Will Smith scored on the power play at the 11:57 mark of the third period to tie the game 1-1. On the goal, Tyler Toffoli sent a diagonal pass across the middle of the ice in the Wild end to Celebrini, who sent it back across the ice to Smith, whose shot on net went through the pads of Gustavsson for his seventh goal of the season.

Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov’s outstanding performance on Tuesday gave the Sharks a chance to make a comeback.

Askarov, making an unexpected start, was the Sharks’ best player through two periods as he stopped 22 of 23 shots, with the lone blemish being a Matt Boldy power-play goal at the 5:02 mark of the second period. He finished with 28 saves.

The Sharks, meanwhile, only managed five shots in both the first and second periods, including one shot on Gustavsson in their first two power plays. The Sharks have been ice cold on the man advantage lately, converting only 1 of 23 chances over their last eight games before Smith scored in the third.

Still, the Sharks were primarily dominated by the Wild at even strength. The exception was the Sharks’ second line of Alexander Wennberg, Philipp Kurashev and William Eklund, as that trio had six of San Jose’s first 13 shots.

Eklund returned to the Sharks’ lineup on Tuesday after he missed the previous four games with a lower-body injury.

The Sharks have now won four straight games for the first time since the start of the 2021-22 season, when they began the year 4-0-0.

Smith now has points in each of the past five games with a combined three goals and four assists, and Celebrini had three goals and four assists in that time. Celebrini came into Tuesday with a team-leading 24 points, tied for fourth most in the NHL. With two assists on Tuesday, Celebrini now has 17 points in just seven road games.

Goaltending, though, has been a big reason for the Sharks’ turnaround this season.

In their first 10 games of the season, the Sharks had an .857 save percentage and, perhaps not surprisingly, a 2-6-2 record. In the next six games, the Sharks’ save percentage between Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic rose to .961, and the team went 5-0-1.

Nedeljkovic was expected to get the start against the Wild. But, for reasons that were not immediately clear, Askarov started instead, and Nedeljkovic sat on the bench.

Askarov was coming off a 38-save performance on Saturday when he made 38 saves in a 3-1 Sharks win over the Florida Panthers. In three starts this month before Tuesday, Askarov is 3-0-0 with a .972 save percentage.