Los Gatos native Devin Cooley lived a dream on Sunday afternoon as the starting goalie for the San Jose Sharks.
It just didn’t have the feel-good ending he and his teammates wanted.
Clinging to a one-goal lead in the third period, Cooley and the Sharks allowed goals to Ryan Donato, Kevin Korchinski, and Joey Anderson in 83 seconds in what became a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in a game between the NHL’s two worst teams.
Cooley has stopped 22 of 23 shots in the first two periods before the wheels fell off for San Jose in the third.
With the Sharks leading 2-1, Donato scored his 10th of the season as he collected a Jarred Tinordi pass and fired a shot past a partially screened Cooley. The Blackhawks continued to apply pressure before a deflected Korchinski shot from inside the blue line got past Cooley at the 11:51 mark for what would be the game-winning goal.
Anderson got an insurance goal 11 seconds later from around the net to help the Blackhawks (19-44-5) seal the win and move four points ahead of the 32nd-place Sharks in the NHL’s overall standings.
Ryan Carpenter and Klim Kostin both scored in the first period for the Sharks, now 0-4-0 on this road trip which concludes Tuesday in Nashville. Cooley finished with 26 shots on 30 saves.
Cooley was making his NHL debut as he became the first player from Santa Clara County to play a game for the Sharks (16-44-7). The former Jr. Sharks standout and University of Denver product was acquired by San Jose on March 8 from the Buffalo Sabres.
Cooley stopped 13 of 14 shots in the second period to help keep his team in front as the Sharks began to get a bit careless with the puck.
Philipp Kurashev finished off a Blackhawks odd-man rush at the 14:02 mark of the second period as the Sharks misplayed a 3-on-2 against. Connor Bedard sent a puck across the ice to Tyler Johnson, who passed it back toward the middle of the ice where Kurashev tipped it past Cooley’s shoulder to cut San Jose’s lead to 2-1.
Cooley limited the damage from there, though. Less than a minute after Kurashev’s goal, Chicago got another 2-on-1, but Cooley stopped a shot from Ryan Donato and two more Taylor Raddysh.
The Blackhawks outshot the Sharks 8-0 over the final 5:58 to end the second period.
Cooley made eight saves in the first period as the Sharks took a 2-0 lead.
The Sharks opened the scoring at the 10:33 mark as Carpenter came in on a 2-on-1 with Alexander Barabanov on Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek, started by a pass from Kevin Labanc.
After Barabanov put a shot on net, Carpenter collected the rebound and scored his fifth goal of the season. Four of those goals have come against two of his former teams, as he had two against the New York Rangers and now two against the Blackhawks, with whom he played 168 games over three seasons from 2019 to 2022.
Later in the period, Mikael Granlund took a pass from Mario Ferraro as he was stationed behind the Blackhawks net. After waiting for a couple of moments, he found the stick of Kostin, who scored at the 16:32 mark to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead.
Since being acquired from the Detroit Red Wings on March 8, Kostin had two goals and two assists in five games, and he started Sunday on the top line with Granlund and Zetterlund.
Cooley was making history on Sunday, as he became the first individual from Santa Clara County to play a game for the Sharks.
Certainly, Cooley has had to have some patience to get to this point.
After three years at the University of Denver, the undrafted Cooley played 87 minor league games between the ECHL and AHL from 2021 to 2024, working mostly as a backup. This year, prior to being acquired by the Sharks on March 8 from Buffalo, Cooley had played in just 14 games for the Rochester Americans.