Photo credit: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

By Pearl Allison Lo

San Jose faced a stiffer challenge Tuesday, but prevailed once again in a 6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks.

The Sharks (72) are now three points away from the Canucks and kept pace with the Calgary Flames and the Los Angeles Kings, who both won.

Antti Niemi stopped 26 shots as he and company have now won five straight at Vancouver.

San Jose’s Matt Nieto had two goals and an assist, the Canucks’ Henrik Sedin had two goals, his twin Daniel had two assists and the Sharks’ Patrick Marleau had two assists.

Jacob Markstrom did not have the easiest of season debuts as San Jose continued their scoring from the Montreal game.

After going back down on Saturday and then coming back up from Worcester Monday, Chris Tierney scored the first of the Sharks’ goals and his second NHL goal. Vancouver turned over the puck and Tierney’s defenseman had no stick as Tierney scored his second straight at Rogers Arena. Barclay Goodrow aided at 3:03.

The Sharks’ Melker Karlsson had the help of lucky bounces and himself as he saw the puck come from over the top of the net. While he was on his side, he got a hold of the puck and then facing the opposite way of the net, put the puck past Markstrom. Joe Pavelski and Matt Irwin helped as Karlsson also scored the last time the teams met.

27 seconds later, Logan Couture made it 3-0 as Nieto and Marleau assisted. The team made their shots count. At this point, it was just their fourth shot.

Eddie Lack then came in for Markstrom.

San Jose was challenged in the second period. Special teams, defense and offense were pivotal in their survival.

Henrik got the Canucks on the board in the second during a power play that started with less than 30 seconds left in the first. He scored at 1:01, aided by Daniel and Radim Vrbata.

Henrik then got his third goal in two games at 9:12 as Niemi’s left side was exposed with no defender. Daniel got the primary assist again and Chris Higgins the second as Vancouver made it a one-goal game.

Marleau found Nieto, who gave the Sharks a much needed 4-2 cushion at 11:45.

That goal became so much more important when over a minute later, the Canucks had a 5-on-3 advantage. A high stick to Marleau was tacked on to a Goodrow cross check, but San Jose escaped unscathed.

The third period saw the Sharks notch two empty-netters, which gave them the most this season so far, 14, over Vancouver with 13.

Nieto scored the first goal, giving him a two-goal game for the second time.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic followed suit less than a minute later.

Game notes: San Jose’s Justin Braun finished a game high +4, teammate Brenden Dillon had a game-tying four hits and a game-high four blocked shots, the Canucks outhit the Sharks 22 to 12, won faceoffs by 65 to 35% and had 16 missed shots to six. San Jose now kicks off a four-game home set, starting with Vancouver again, Saturday at 7pm.