Sharks edge Flyers, end record-tying, 11-game skid

Mackenzie Blackwood made 38 saves and Anthony Duclair had a goal and an assist as the host San Jose Sharks snapped their NHL record-tying 11-game losing streak to begin a season with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.

William Eklund also scored for San Jose (1-10-1), who came into the contest tied with the 1943-44 New York Rangers (0-11-0) and the Arizona Coyotes (0-10-1 in both 2017-18 and 2021-22) for the worst starts to a season in modern NHL history.

San Jose also snapped a 17-game regular-season losing streak (0-15-2) dating back to last season, when they defeated Arizona 7-2 on April 1. The 17-game skid matched the longest in franchise history.

Joel Farabee scored for Philadelphia, which lost for the fifth time in the past six games. Samuel Ersson finished with 17 saves.

San Jose, outscored a combined 20-3 in its previous two losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vancouver Canucks, jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 1:43 mark of the first period on Duclair's third goal of the season.

Kevin Labanc set up the score on a two-on-one break with a crossing pass from the right wing to Duclair, who fired a wrist shot over Ersson's right shoulder to put the Sharks on top.

Eklund gave San Jose its first two-goal lead of the season at 16:18 of the second period with a power-play goal, blasting a one-timer from the right circle five-hole off a Duclair pass.

The Flyers cut it to 2-1 to with 1:11 left in the middle period. Farabee finished a two-on-one with Travis Sanheim with a wrist shot then bounced in off Blackwood's glove. It appeared that Blackwood initially made a save on the shot, but a video review by the Situation Room in Toronto determined the puck crossed the goal line.

Philadelphia, which outshot San Jose, 39-19, had an excellent chance to tie it midway through the third period when Garnet Hathaway came in on a clean breakaway, but Blackwood stopped Hathaway's wrist shot with his left arm.

The Flyers pulled Ersson for an extra attacker with 1:26 remaining, but Blackwood turned away a pair of wrist shots by Farabee to clinch the Sharks' first win of the season.