By Pearl Allison Lo

Photo credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS, JONATHAN HAYWARD AP PHOTO

San Jose Sharks’ Antti Niemi made 33 saves as his teammates provided plenty goal support in a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks Thursday.

It was another matchup of Pacific division teams close in the standings.

The majority of the first period was spent trying to solve goalie Ryan Miller as San Jose started out with a 6-0 shot advantage, went to 11-2 and ended at 16-9 for the period.

The Sharks almost went the whole period without a goal for their efforts until Matt Irwin clanked the puck into the net at 17:43. Matt Tennyson and Logan Couture aided on the play.

San Jose then went up 2-0 with the help of a failed clearance. Brent Burns found Melker Karlsson in front of the net at 6:24 of the second period.

Vancouver had a goal waved off with 6:46 left, because Alexandre Burrows batted it in with his glove.

The Sharks took two penalties in the period, but evened out when the Canucks went down two men at 18:16. Henrik Sedin was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct  after Dan Hamhuis received a tripping penalty. The power play unit had a number of looks around the net, but none of them realized until a Joe Pavelski pass or shot. There was 15 seconds left in the period and was Pavelski’s NHL-leading 15th power play goal. Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau helped.

San Jose made it 4-0 when Brent Burns found another teammate in similar fashion to the second goal. At 3:55 of the third, Chris Tierney was credited with his first NHL goal. Marc-Edouard Vlasic also assisted.

Niemi lost his shutout bid with less than two minutes remaining in the contest. Radim Vrbata was aided by Ryan Stanton.

Andrew Desjardins reestablished the four goal lead with 4.7 seconds left, after a no look pass from Chris Tierney. Daniil Tarasov also got his first NHL point in his NHL debut.

Game notes: The night marked Marleau’s 1300th game with the Sharks, as he became the youngest NHL player to appear in that many games with the same team, joining a short list of just 10 others. San Jose returns home to play the Carolina Hurricanes first, Saturday at 7:30 pm.