Getty
The Boston Bruins make a Jeremy Swayman goaltending decision ahead of their game against the San Jose Sharks to open a West Coast road trip.
The Boston Bruins have been on a dominant run for the past two games, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 on Saturday after a 6-1 win over the Utah Mammoth two days earlier.
Both of those games were at TD Garden in Boston. But now the Bruins head out on the road for a four-game, weeklong Western swing starting Tuesday night.
Before their opener of the grueling road trip, the 4-2-0 Bruins announced a decision on their starting goalie for the game against the Sharks in San Jose, California.
Jeremy Swayman has been the Bruins’ goalie for five of six games this season, and tonight he’ll be tending the twine once again as Boston faces the Sharks in a game that gets underway at 11 p.m. for the fans back in Boston.
Puck drop at SAP Center 8 p.m. PDT. The Sharks, who are trying to avoid an eighth straight year of missing the playoffs this season, have won the last three meetings between the clubs, two of them in San Jose, according to Boston Hockey Now. That’s a sharp turn for a Bruins team that once ran off 14 straight wins over the San Jose franchise.
The one start Swayman missed came Oct. 3 at Minnesota. Michael DiPietro took that game, lost it and finished with a .897 save percentage, according to Puckfeed‘s tracker. Since then, Boston (4-2-0) has won twice and allowed one goal in each game.
Swayman Faces Yaroslav Askarov in Goalie Matchup
Swayman arrives at 4-1-0 with a 1.79 goals-against average, a .932 save percentage and one shutout, according to CBS Sports. He has stopped 124 of the 133 shots he’s seen in five starts.
Saturday’s 5-1 win over the Flyers, in which he made 14 saves, pulled him even with Andy Moog for eighth on the Bruins’ career wins list. Both have 136, according to CBS Sports.
Swayman is 2-2-0 against the Sharks with a .931 save percentage, a 1.76 goals-against average and one shutout across five appearances, according to StatMuse.
He stopped all 26 shots in a shutout on Nov. 30, 2023, and turned away 15 of 16 in a win at SAP Center on Feb. 26, 2022. The losses both came last season: 28 saves on 30 shots on Nov. 23, then 24 on 28 on March 12.
Across the crease, the Sharks are expected to start Yaroslav Askarov, who is 2-2-0 with a 3.71 goals-against average and a .860 save percentage in four starts. Swayman leads him by 72 points in save percentage and by 1.92 goals a game.
Askarov is 24, stands 6-foot-3 and went 11th overall to Nashville in the 2020 draft, according to NHL.com‘s Sharks player page.
The Sharks (3-2-0) lost 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, and all three of their wins have come in overtime.
| NHL FROZEN FRENZY — PROJECTED STARTERS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Bruins @ San Jose Sharks • 11:00 PM ET • ESPN / NESN / Sportsnet+ | |||
| Goaltender | Team | Last 5 Starts | Last Meeting |
| Jeremy Swayman | Boston Bruins | 4-1-0 • 1.79 GAA • .932 SV% | Mar 12, 2026 SJS 4 @ BOS 2 L • 24/28 SV |
| Yaroslav Askarov | San Jose Sharks | 2-2-0 • 3.71 GAA • .860 SV% | Mar 12, 2026 SJS 4 @ BOS 2 Did Not Play |
| Projected starters per available reports. Stats reflect current-season starts. Last meeting: March 12, 2026 • San Jose 4, Boston 2. ESPN national feed blacked out in Boston market — stream locally on NESN. | |||
Jeremy Swayman’s Alaskan Roots
Swayman is 27 and grew up in Anchorage, where his father, a podiatrist, volunteered as team doctor for the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves, according to Team USA‘s official profile. The goalie started going to Seawolves games at 1 year old, riding on his father’s back. He later became the team’s stick boy.
He went to the University of Maine, where he won the 2019-20 Mike Richter Award as the top goaltender in NCAA Division I men’s hockey and finished as one of three Hobey Baker Award finalists, according to Team USA. Boston had already drafted him in the fourth round in 2017.
The NHL came quickly. Swayman shared the net with Linus Ullmark in 2022-23, and the pair won the William Jennings Trophy for the league’s lowest team goals-against total. He made his first All-Star Game the next season, according to Team USA.
Through Saturday, he is 136-81-26 with a 2.59 goals-against average, a .910 save percentage and 19 shutouts in 250 NHL games, according to NHL.com‘s career statistics page.
Internationally, Swayman started in goal for the United States at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, where the Americans won their first men’s gold in 92 years. He added Olympic gold at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.
Boston plays Anaheim on Friday, Los Angeles on Saturday and Dallas on Tuesday. The Sharks come to Boston on Oct. 24.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
