The Paddock Report: Sharks 6, Mammoth 5, and it was tighter than the box score makes it look

San Jose walked into Utah and left with a 6-5 win, and that one-goal margin says plenty about how close this one was. Eleven goals total, no breathing room for either bench, and the kind of game that gets decided on the final shift. The Sharks got the last say.

Give the Mammoth credit for refusing to fold. Five goals on home ice means they stayed in this thing from start to finish, and nobody in that building can say their team got run off the ice. But a one-goal loss at home stings more than the final tally suggests. Every goal allowed becomes a what-if, and there were enough of them to fuel the postgame debate for days.

For San Jose, this is less about style points and more about proving they can close out a tight road game. Six goals is a healthy total, and they didn't need a blowout to validate the effort. That matters when every point in the standings is being fought over.

The takeaway? This was a coin flip that landed on the Sharks' side. Utah should be annoyed, not discouraged. Five goals is something to build on, but in a game this close, the margin for error is razor thin, and the next meeting could look very different.