Troy Grosenick celebrated his 25th birthday in August and entered this season without much hope of being part of the San Jose Sharks’ opening game roster. Goaltenders Antti Niemi and Alex Stalock were locks to make the team and if it wasn’t for the fact that Stalock is out with a knee injury, Grosenick would still be working on his craft in the AHL.
Grosenick got a golden opportunity today though and he did everything in his power to show he can be an NHL goaltender, stopping all 45 shots he faced in a 2-0 victory over Carolina. He’s the first Sharks netminder to open his career with a shutout or 45 saves, per the NHL.
San Jose only managed 19 shots on goal, but Tomas Hertl’s fancy stickwork made that enough.
Joe Thornton collected the empty-netter to extend his point streak to six games.
The Sharks have now won two of their last three games to improve to 10-8-2 this season. Carolina has dropped three straight games to fall to 5-9-3.
Prior to Grosenick (45 Svs) the last goalie to record 40 saves & a shutout in NHL debut was VAN's M. Fountain (40) Nov. 14, '96 @EliasSports
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 17, 2014