Erik Karlsson paints offensive masterpiece, but Sharks’ home woes continue

SAN JOSE – Erik Karlsson put together another offensive masterpiece Thursday, but he and the Sharks were once again haunted by a familiar problem in losing another winnable game on home ice.

Karlsson had a goal and three assists for his ninth multi-point game of the season, but also had a plus-minus rating of -1 as the Sharks were plagued by turnovers in a 7-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at SAP Center.

Logan Couture scored at the 8:58 mark of the third period and Karlsson scored his 11th of the season 2:33 later to help the Sharks erase what had been a 4-2 Red Wings lead.

But Sharks goalie James Reimer couldn’t stop a short-side shot from Moritz Seider with 6:06 left in the third period and allowed another goal to Pius Suter after a questionable decision to come way out of his net to play the puck.

The Sharks are now 1-6-3 at SAP Center this season, the worst mark in the NHL. Three of those regulation time losses have been by one goal.

On Suter’s goal, the puck had been sent into the Sharks’ zone. But Suter got to it ahead of Reimer, stick-handled to his left, and scored into an empty net from a sharp angle.

Karlsson’s goal with 8:29 in the third period was his fourth point of the game after he assisted on the Sharks’ first three goals. He now has 28 points in 19 games, tied for the second-most points by a defenseman since the 1989-1990 season.

Al MacInnis had 32 points in 19 games in 1990-91, and Ray Bourque and John Carlson both had 29 points in 1989-90 and 2019-20, respectively.

Remarkably, though, Karlsson was on the ice for the game’s last five goals — two by the Sharks and three by the Wings — as he finished with 24:24 in ice time. Karlsson’s turnover also led to Detroit’s first goal Thursday by Filip Hronek.

Quinn implored his team Thursday morning to be ready to go from the drop of the puck and the Sharks, for the most part, complied. The problem was how the rest of the game unfolded.

After taking a one-goal lead into the first intermission, the Sharks gave up three straight goals.

With the Sharks up 2-1 on goals by Kevin Labanc and Matt Nieto, forward Nick Bonino sent an off-target pass back to the blue line that Marc-Edouard Vlasic could not handle. That created an odd-man rush for Detroit as Dylan Larkin’s shot, after he entered the Sharks’ zone, went off David Perron and past Reimer for his sixth of the season with 8:33 left in the period.

Then with 3:16 left in the second, the Red Wings won a battle for the puck inside the Sharks’ zone. Michael Rasmussen came out with it and chipped the puck back to Jake Walman, whose slap shot from the point got past a screened Reimer for a 3-2 Red Wings lead.

Karlsson assisted on Labanc and Nieto’s first-period goals and one by Couture in the third period that tied the game 4-4.

Less than seven minutes into the first period, Karlsson gloved down a pass from Timo Meier deep in the Red Wings zone and sent a perfect behind-the-back, through-the-legs pass that Labanc one-timed past goalie Ville Husso.

Nieto later in the first period took a pass from Karlsson pass and was surrounded by Wings skaters as he entered the offensive zone. Nieto then stickhandled around defenseman Ben Chiarot and put a backhand shot on net that resulted in his third goal of the season.

The Sharks created scoring chances in the second period, particularly their top line of Meier, Tomas Hertl, and Labanc, Meier, in particular, had a glorious chance from in close but fired the puck high.

Since an 0-5-0 start, the Sharks, before Thursday, had collected 15 points in 13 games with a 6-4-3 record. Karlsson’s record-setting start to the season has played a major role in the Sharks’ turnaround as he had 21 points in those 13 games, with Meier and Hertl both adding 14 points.