Sharks earn entertaining bounce-back win, but center exits with injury

SAN JOSE – San Jose Sharks forward Pavol Regenda is enjoying one of the best weeks of his professional career. So too, perhaps, is center Alexander Wennberg.

Regenda scored for the fourth time in two games and Wennberg, two days after signing a three-year contract extension, added a goal and two assists to help lead the Sharks to an entertaining 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Zack Ostapchuk scored on a breakaway to give the Sharks a 3-1 lead with 4:44 left in the third. That turned out to be the game-winner as Sean Monahan got that goal back just 11 seconds later.

Mario Ferraro and Macklin Celebrini both added empty net goals in the final 2:14 as the Sharks won for the fourth time in five games.

Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, making his first start since Dec. 18, stopped 34 shots as the Sharks bounced back from an ugly 7-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

The win was Nedeljkovic’s first for the Sharks since Dec. 11 when he made 28 stops in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Regenda’s goal, his sixth in five NHL games this season, came on a 2-on-1 with 49 seconds left in the first period as he took a pass from Wennberg and beat Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves high to the glove side. Wennberg then gave the Sharks a two-goal lead with a power play goal at the 4:14 mark of the second period.

The Blue Jackets got that goal back with 45 seconds left in the second period as he took a pass from Dmitri Voronkov and beat Nedeljkovic for his 16th goal of the season.

The Sharks, who have won four of their last five, continue a busy week with a road game against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday followed by home games against the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The Sharks lost center Ty Dellandrea to an undisclosed injury with 4:45 left in the second period. Dellandrea was carrying the puck toward the Blue Jackets’ net when he lost an edge and fell legs-first into the post beside Greaves.

Dellandrea, the Sharks’ third line center for most of the last two months, had to be helped off the ice and into the team’s dressing room, and was ruled out of the game at the start of the third period.

Dellandrea is having a bounce-back season of sorts for the Sharks. After he managed just eight points in 68 games with San Jose last season while averaging less than 12 minutes of ice time per game, Dellandrea had 11 points in 41 games before Tuesday, and had become the Sharks’ top penalty-killing forward and one of the team’s leading faceoff takers.

Regenda had played just 19 NHL games, all with the Anaheim Ducks as he managed three points, before this season.

Acquired from the Ducks on Jan. 22, 2025, for forward Justin Bailey, Regenda finished last season with the Barracuda of the AHL and had an impressive training camp in September and October before he was placed on waivers by the Sharks and assigned to the Barracuda.

Regenda was recalled by the Sharks in early December and had two goals in two games before was returned to the AHL. He was recalled again on Dec. 30 and scored all three of the Sharks’ goals in Saturday’s humbling loss.

Regenda has 112 points in 204 career AHL games from 2022 to 2025.