Tag: Brent Burns

Sharks Score Five Again, Shut Out Slumping Sens 5-0

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Photo credit: San Jose Sharks

by M. Walsh

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks handed the Ottawa Senators a resounding defeat to the tune of 5-0 at SAP Center on Saturday night. The win followed up a surprising 5-4 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, when the Sharks led a furious comeback after trailing by three goals. Saturday’s goals came from Logan Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Melker Karlsson, Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl. Couture, Pavelski, Brent Burns and Kevin Labanc all had multi-point games and back-up goaltender Aaron Dell made 25 saves for the Sharks’ shutout win. At the other end of the ice, Craig Anderson made 45 saves on 50 shots in a losing effort for the Senators.

Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer said that San Jose’s goal was to start fast against Ottawa, avoiding the slow start that marked their previous game: “I liked our game. Compared to the game against Carolina, I thought we were really sharp and really carried over the way we played in the third period against them into tonight.”

The Sharks checked a lot of boxes in Saturday’s game, killing four of four penalties and scoring on two of seven power plays. Tim Heed returned after dealing with an upper body injury, and Paul Martin is scheduled to start a conditioning stint with the Barracuda. So much rosy news begs the question of whether the Sharks have reached a turning point in the season.

DeBoer would not say that it is a turning point, but he did say that the goals are important for more than the score: “It was nice to score some goals, nice to get some power play goals. Guys have been working awful hard, we generate a lot of chances and we haven’t finished enough this year. So it was nice to have a night like that. Whether we can do that again tomorrow night I don’t know. But confidence is a big part of scoring and there was a lot of guys feeling good about themselves tonight.”

Logan Couture opened the scoring near the midpoint of the first period. The Sharks had outshot the Sens 10-0 at the 12-minute mark. Dell had just fought off the Senators’ first couple of shots in a flurry of activity on the edge of his crease. After Hertl won a defensive zone faceoff, the Sharks went the other way fast, with Labanc making a lovely pass so Couture could beat Anderson as he moved across. Assists went to Labanc and Justin Braun.

At the end of the first period, the shot count was 16-6 San Jose.

Early in the second period, the Sharks had just come off of a power play when Vlasic blasted a shot past Anderson. Tim Heed caught a pass from Kevin Labanc from behind the net, and sent the puck across the ice to the waiting Vlasic.

The Senators were keeping pace at least in shots past the midpoint of the period, but the Sharks did not let up. Joe Thornton passed the puck backward behind the net to a trailing Pavelski, who quickly sent it back up above the goal line for Melker Karlsson to pop into the net.

The Sharks’ power play came to life in the third period with two goals, one early and one late. The first third period power play resulted from a fight between Marcus Sorensen and Ryan Dzingel, when Dzingel was given an extra minor for roughing. Pavelski tipped a quick Couture shot from high in the slot. A second assist went to Brent Burns.

The Senators appeared to have scored at 5:12, in a power play that followed soon after the Sharks’ fourth goal. Braun was in the box for slashing. Matt Duchene took a shot from the face off dot and Bobby Ryan pushed it in. The official waved it off and did not even stop play. On later review, the NHL concluded that the puck had not crossed the line before Vlasic swept the puck back out.

The final power play of the game came when Alex Burrows used the butt end of his stick to bloody Dylan DeMelo’s face. Burrows was ejected with a fighting major and a roughing minor. DeMelo received roughing minor as he went to the dressing room to be patched up. Tomas Hertl scored after catching a bouncing puck off of Erik Karlsson’s hand. Assists went to Brent Burns and Logan Couture.

The Sharks next play on Sunday at 6:00 pm PT against the Minnesota Wild.

Burns’ OT Winner Caps Special Night By Special Teams in Sharks’ 5-4 Win Over Hurricanes

Published on by Matthew HarringtonLeave a comment

Photo credit: San Jose Sharks

By Matthew Harrington

SAN JOSE, Calif. – There are going to be a large number of San Jose Sharks fans standing around the water cooler tomorrow morning talk about turning the TV off in the middle of another Sharks blowout. They’ll talk about how it was déjà vu, the Sharks getting blown out for the third-straight game after losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals by a combined 9-3 margin then falling behind to the visiting Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 after 20 minutes at home Thursday night.

“It’s not how we would draw it up to start a game,” said Sharks coach Peter DeBoer. “We dug ourselves out of a hole. You’re going to win all kinds of different ways over 82 games in this league.”

But something special happened. Or rather something special teams happened. The Sharks scored a pair of power play goals and shorthanded goals to overcome a 3-0 deficit, forcing overtime against the visiting Canes. A storybook comeback deserves a happy ending, so Brent Burns scored just 22 seconds into overtime to cap a furious 5-4 Sharks comeback. Burns, the third Sharks’ skater to enter the offensive zone, skated around Sebastian Aho to pick up the puck in close and beat goaltender Cam Ward for his second goal of the year.

Joe Thornton moved up the all-time points list with two points (one goal, one assist). Barclay Goodrow, Logan Couture and Melker Karlsson also scored for San Jose, while Paul Martin returned to the lineup finishing with a +/- of -2.

“It was his first game back,” said DeBoer. “It looked like it was his first game back, trying to get some of the rust off. I don’t think that was the story of the game.”

Trailing 3-0 heading into the second period, the Sharks used the second-best penalty kill in the league to break up Cam Ward’s shutout. Melker Karlsson fed Chris Tierney to start a two-on-one rush down the ice. Tierney returned the favor, feeding Karlsson right on the opposite post. Karlsson’s blistering up-close shot ricocheted off the back of the net and out for his fourth of the year in his first game back in the lineup since December 1st.

“Coach [Peter DeBoer] said if we can get one it would change the momentum of the game,” said Thornton. “It definitely did.”

The Hurricanes briefly stymied the momentum the Sharks were gaining after Karlsson’s shorty, striking after a lax defensive effort around their own net. The Hurricanes managed to fire off a number of in-tight shots on Jones with the puck bouncing throughout the goal area with Jeff Skinner ultimately pushing the puck through a pile of bodies for a 4-1 Carolina lead with 5:16 left in the period.

The other half of San Jose’s special teams stepped up to cut the Carolina lead to two with Joe Thornton scoring a power play goal with 2:09 left in the period after Trevor Van Riemsdyk was given the gate for holding the stick in a scramble. The Sharks man-advantage entered the game tied for 24th in the league with a 16.7 percent success rate.

The power play did it again in the third period, using crisp passing by Brent Burns to set up a one-timer for Logan Couture. Joe Thornton picked up the secondary assist to help the Sharks pull within one 4-3 with 11:29 left to play. The helper pushed Thornton to 19th place on the all-time points list, tied with Dale Hawerchuk and his 1,409 career points.

“We haven’t been getting any,” said Thornton on power play opportunities. “It’s tough to get into a rhythm when you’re not getting any. Tonight we could finally get into a rhythm getting 3 power play chances. It’s nice to see you score some goals.”

The PK had to catch up to the PP goal-for-goal, so Barclay Goodrow did the trick, tying the game with 8:04 left in regulation. Jannik Hansen led the rush up the ice, but it was Goodrow’s hustle to beat two Hurricanes skaters across the blue line for a breakaway on Ward that made the difference.

“That’s what guys have to do to try to stay in the lineup,” said DeBoer. “He’s playing with that desperation.”

The comeback was great, but San Jose video coach Dan Darrow might as well delete any footage from the first period after a listless start domed the home team. The Hurricanes took advantage of a sleepwalking Sharks club, with defenseman Noah Hanifin crashing from his spot on the blue line to wind up in the slot unfettered. Hanifin took Derek Ryan’s pass from below the faceoff dot and rifled a one-timer that Jones saved. The rebound bounced to Sebastian Aho though, who beat Jones 9:10 into the period for a 1-0 lead.

The Canes capitalized on a rare bad break from Marc-Edouard Vlasic whose clearing attempt aimed at the boards deflected into the slot instead. Center Elias Lindholm came up with the puck, then passed it to Victor Rask just inside the faceoff dot to Jones’ left. Rask fired the one-timer home for a 2-0 Carolina lead 11:37 into the period.

Aho pulled a similar move to Hanifin’s earlier in the game to score his second of the match. The winger slid into the slot alone, took a pass from Teuvo Teravainen and potted his second of the game and seventh of the season with 5:46 left in the frame. Despite the three goals, the Hurricanes only produced five shots on goal in the period to the Shark’s six and looked well on their way to a win.

“With the travel we’ve had over the last week or two it hasn’t been easy at times,” said Sharks captain Joe Pavelski. “It’s not an excuse. It took a few shifts to get it out of us.”

The five-goal performance Thursday might prove to be a preview for the weekend slate for the Sharks. San Jose will welcome a pair of opponents prone to giving up crooked numbers to the Shark Tank over the weekend, with the Ottawa Senators and Minnesota Wild making stops in Northern California over the weekend. Ottawa is currently sixth in the league, allowing 3.27 goals per game while the Wild allow 3, good for 13th place.

Sharks Lose to Golden Knights 5-4 in OT

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

Vegas Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault (81) celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal against the San Jose Sharks during overtime of an NHL hockey game Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, in Las Vegas. Vegas won 5-4. (AP Photo/John Locher)

by M. Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost 5-4 in overtime to the Las Vegas Golden Knights Friday. After trailing 3-1, the Sharks came back to tie the game, with goals from Mikkel Boedker, Chris Tierney, Tomas Hertl and Brent Burns. The five Las Vegas goals came from Shea Theodore, James Neal, two from William Karlsson, and the overtime winner from Jonathan Marchessault. With the win, the Knights added to their already astonishing first season record of 14-6-1.

Neither team was at their best defensively, which made for a wide-open game. Both teams changed goalies at some point in the game. After the game, Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said:

It was a track meet, it was pond hockey out there. The offense came, I think, because it was loose. We don’t want to play that type of game. We had to, we were forced to because of how we started and found a way to get a point out of it. That’s about all the good that came out of it.

Of coming back from a 3-1 deficit, Sharks forward Logan Couture said: “Yes, I guess pretty good but not good enough. We put ourselves in that hole. I thought they were better than us. We had some jump for a small period of time and that was it.”

The Knights jumped out to a fast start, scoring twice in the first period. Shea Theodore’s goal came just 2:33 in, with assists to Cody Eakin and Brendan Leipsic. The second goal came in the middle of the period, on a power play. James Neal’s goal came after a lot of movement from the power play, with several cross ice passes that drew Sharks goalie Martin Jones across the goal mouth more than once. When the shot came, it was over Jones’ shoulder just under the bar. Assists went to Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault.

Tomas Hertl scored late in the first off an impressive feed from Joonas Donskoi. Donskoi first jumped to catch the puck out of the air, then had to recover after being knocked down by Knights goalie Maxime Lagace. His quick reverse pass still connected with Hertl in front of the net. Assists went to Donskoi and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

William Karlsson scored twice in the second period, the first only ten seconds in. Still on a carry over the power play from the first period, the Knights pushed the play into the Sharks’ zone in a somewhat chaotic scramble. A bouncing puck found its way to Alex Tuch below the face-off dot. His shot bounced some more as it crossed the goal mouth to Karlsson, who knocked it in. A second assist went to Reilly Smith.

The Sharks replaced goalie Martin Jones with Aaron Dell at that point, only to see Karlsson score again at 6:55, when he tipped a Marchessault shot from the blue line.

Of the goaltending change, DeBoer said: “It’s too bad we didn’t start on time. That’s the disappointing part. It didn’t help Jonesy at all and I got him out of there just because I didn’t want him to have to play a whole night in front of that.”

Just a little over a minute later, Brent Burns scored his first of the year with one of his trademark blasts from the blue line. The lone assist went to Joe Thornton.

Chris Tierney scored his fifth of the season not long after the Sharks’ first power play of the game. The Knights had just iced the puck and the Sharks gained control after the faceoff. Joel Ward won a puck battle in the corner, allowing Tierney to send the puck up to the blue line. Justin Braun took a wide shot and Tierney got to the net in time to redirect it in. Assists went to Braun and Ward.

The tying goal came with less than a minute left. Joe Pavelski’s shot got caught in traffic but bounced out to the slot where Mikkel Boedker caught it and shot it in before Lagace could get set to stop it.

The Golden Knights changed goaltenders in the third period, replacing Lagace with Malcolm Subban. There were no goals scored in the third, but late in the period, Logan Couture had a goal called back. The explanation given was that Joonas Donskoi touched skates with goaltender Malcolm Subban in the crease.

Marchessault scored the overtime winner 1:22 into overtime. Brent Burns had just broken a stick and gone to replace it. The remaining players held off the goal for several seconds before Marchessault’s shot went into defensive traffic and off of Joe Thornton’s skate into the goal.

The Sharks next play on Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets, in San Jose at 7 pm PT.

Sharks Fall to Islanders Again, 5-3

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

Photo credit: San Jose Sharks

by Mary Walsh

NEW YORK — In spite of Logan Couture’s hat trick on Saturday, the Sharks lost to the New York Islanders by two goals, for the second time this season. Islander goals came from Andrew Ladd, Josh Bailey, John Tavares and two from Anders Lee. Thomas Greiss made 28 saves for the win, while Aaron Dell made 18 saves for San Jose. The game was the second of back to backs for the Sharks, and the same skaters were in the lineup as the night before. The only only change from Friday’s game was in net, with Dell in for Martin Jones.

Sharks defenseman, Brent Burns, who had eight shots in the game, said of Couture’s recent success: “He’s a great player. He’s an elite player and that’s huge for us.” On how Couture and linemate Tomas Hertl have played together this season, he said:

They’re both great players. I think Hertl is very under-rated on his puck control and his battle level. Great at controlling the puck in the zone and making little plays. He’s just hard to play against, obviously huge that he’s got a great shot and great hands. Battles hard, and I think it’s good to see them getting chemistry.

An uneventful first period was followed by a four goal second period. The Sharks scored first, on a power play at 6:26. Brock Nelson was in the box for hooking Kevin Labanc. The goal came 35 seconds into the power play, starting with a faceoff win by Joe Thornton. Thornton won the faceoff and then passed the puck back to Brent Burns at the point. Burns hesitated briefly, then shot it for Logan Couture to redirect it in. Assists went to Burns and Thornton.

The Islanders responded with two goals, the first less than two minutes later. Nick Leddy got around Boedker to get to the puck behind the Sharks net. From there he sent the puck back to Anders Lee for a neat shot past Dell. Leddy and John Tavares got the assists.

The next Islanders goal came less than a minute later at 8:31. Josh Bailey took advantage of a takeaway and stick handled around Joe Pavelski to beat Dell one on one.

Logan Couture tied the game back up at 12:44. Jannik Hansen followed the puck over the line and had to reach for it. He managed to pass it to Couture as he was approaching the faceoff circle. From there, Couture could shoot without interference and he hit the mark. Assists went to Hansen and Brenden Dillon.

Early in the third period, the Islanders took the lead again with a goal from Andrew Ladd. Mathew Barzal carried the puck around behind the net, driven there by a lot of Sharks defenders. Possibly Barzal got too much attention because Ladd was able to skate into an open space in the slot and when he got the pass from down low he was ready for it. Dell was not quite ready for the shot. Assists went to Barzal and Josh Bailey.

Moments later, Joe Pavelski was hit in the wrist area and appeared to be in some distress. He stayed on the bench and did not leave the game.

The Sharks had some good chances during a power play in the third, in particular the unit of Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Tomas Hertl, Joonas Donskoi, Mikkel Boedker and Kevin Labanc. The Sharks had plenty of chances in the third. Half way through the period, the shots were 13-2.

The Islanders scored twice more in the third period. The first came on a two on one after Joakim Ryan got tangled up on the boards with 15, while trying to keep the puck from escaping up the boards. The two were John Tavares and Anders Lee, with Brent Burns back. Tavares’s pass went through Burns’s skates right on to Lee’s tape. Assists went to Tavares and Cal Clutterbuck.

Couture closed the gap with just under two minutes left in the game. He was at the net when Burns sent a shot from the blue line, and after a little scramble, redirected it into the net.

Incidentally, that third goal from Couture won $100,000 for Wanda Lockwood in the Safeway Score & Win contest.

The final goal of the game went into an empty net at 19:04, off of Tavares’s stick. Assists went to Lee and Calvin de Haan.

After the game, Burns was asked if Joe Thornton got a get out of jail free card after a bad turnover during the game. He responded:

Every goal happens, there’s always three or four breakdowns that happen before. I mean I don’t even know which one you’re talking about to be honest. Hockey’s pretty fast, this team especially comes hard so it’s usually not on the puck controller, usually it’s the support and guys talking to him. I honestly don’t know which one you’re talking about but, I assume, there’s a lot of other things that happen on every goal. We don’t really have get out of jail free cards or blame game.

The Sharks next play on Monday against the Rangers at 4:00 PM PT in New York.

Sharks and Blues: Western Conference Final Preview

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

By Mary Walsh

AP photo: St Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott stops a shot from the San Jose Sharks Patrick Marleau 12 as Blues defenceman Cotton Parayko 55 watches on Sunday night in the third period

The Western Conference Final is upon us. Past results reveal that the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues have followed very similar paths to this point, and neither team is a clear choice for favorite. Even intangibles cannot give us a hint. Both San Jose and St. Louis are hungry for success. The Sharks have never made it to the Stanley Cup Final, and the Blues have not been there since 1970. They both unseated recent Cup winners in the first round. They both defeated up and coming teams in the second round, by the a five goal margin, in the seventh game. The likeness is uncanny, and utterly proper. The final teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs should be equals, it is only right that the results be entirely unpredictable. The results of the Stanley Cup Final could be easier to predict, especially with the Eastern teams taking such heavy casualties after just one game. I predict that the Western team will win the Cup, and that team will be from a city named after a saint.

A glance at the current NHL Leaderboard shows three Sharks leading in playoff scoring categories. In points, goals, and assists, Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns top those charts. Logan Couture is in the top three in all of those categories, while Pavelski and Burns are top five in two. The Blues have two players in each of these categories, with Vladimir Tarasenko listed in the top five in points and goals, Robby Fabbri top ten in points and assists, and David Backes ranked fifth in goals. The teams are pretty close when it comes to high ranking for their top scorers.

Those numbers tell us which players the opponent will zero in on defensively. They also tell us, by omission, which players previous opponents probably spent most of their defensive energy on. For the Sharks, Joe Thornton did not rack up quite as many points as he might be expected to, especially being one of Joe Pavelski’s linemates. Joel Ward fell from fifth to eighth on the team in goals. Tomas Hertl dropped from fourth to ninth on the team in goals. Patrick Marleau should have produced more, especially since he spent so much time not on a line with Couture or Thornton. I say that because he should have been able to slip under the radar of the Kings or the Predators, if the top lines drew top defense away. So either Marleau did get the defensive attention he can deserve, or he just was not playing that well. Either way, he is one who could suddenly start producing in this series.

Even if underproducing players do not break out, how many goal scorers has it taken to get the Sharks this far, compared to the Blues? The Sharks have seven players with three or more goals in these playoffs. Apart from the league leaders mentioned above, the Sharks have four goals from Marleau, three each from Thornton, Chris Tierney, and Joonas Donskoi. Joel Ward, Tomas Hertl and Melker Karlsson have two each. Matt Nieto and Tommy Wingels each have one tally.

For the Blues, eight players have scored three or more goals. Tarasenko has seven, Backes has six, Troy Brouwer has five, Alexander Steen and Patrik Berglund each have four, while Robby Fabbri, Jaden Schwartz and Paul Stasny each have three. Seven more St. Louis skaters have one or two goals. During the regular season, Tarasenko also led his team in goals, and the rest of the top six were essentially the same as they have been in the playoffs: Backes, Brouwer, Fabbri and Steen.

Though none of the Blues defensemen can challenge Brent Burns in the scoring department, St. Louis has gotten more points from their defense than the Sharks have. They have four defensemen with four or more points, Kevin Shattenkirk leading there with ten points. The Sharks have four defensemen with three or more points, Justin Braun and Paul Martin having just three.

The Blues have three more goal scorers than the the Sharks have, but the Sharks have scored .28 more goals per game. The Blues have given up a few more goals (2.43) than the Sharks have (2.33), if you go by games played. One could argue that the Sharks should not have it held against them that they did not give up goals in games they did not play by defeating the Kings so quickly. But since the Blues and the Sharks will play the same number of games in this series, games played is probably a better measure than total goals against.

The Sharks’ 30.9% power play is the best among teams in the final four. The Blues are right behind them with a 27.5% success rate. The Sharks’ penalty kill is a couple of ranking spots higher than the Blues, with San Jose at 82.3% and St. Louis at 79.5%. Either of those special team rankings could be reversed in the course of a single game, so again the teams are darn close.

The Blues gave up more shots (31.3) per game than the Sharks did (28.5) , but not many more. The Blues played Chicago and Dallas, while the Sharks played Los Angeles and Nashville. The habits of their respective opponents may have skewed those figures. During the regular season games, the Sharks consistently outshot the Blues, but usually by a fairly small margin.

In the playoffs, faceoff win percentages are be heavily influenced by the opponent, but it is still worth looking at. The Blues have been better at 50.7 % than the Sharks at 46.2%. Both teams were better during the regular season, but the Blues were a little better there too at 51.3% to the Sharks’ 50.7%. Thornton and Hertl are the only Sharks who have won better than 50% of their faceoffs in the first two rounds, and Hertl has only taken 20 draws. For the Blues, Paul Stastny, David Backes and Jori Lehtera took the lion’s share of faceoffs in both the regular season and the playoffs, and all three are over 50%. Paul Stastny won an impressive 59% of his draws in the first two rounds.

Could it come down to goaltending? Brian Elliott gives the Blues and edge in save percentage (.929-.918), Jones has the edge in goals against average (2.16-2.29), and they each have one shutout. Elliott is the more seasoned starter, but he has never gotten so far in the playoffs. Jones has seen his team win a Cup, but was only there as a backup. Both teams have above-average backups, but only the Blues’ Jake Allen saw any ice time in the first two rounds. Again, and again and again, the Sharks and the Blues look so close on paper that neither clearly has an edge.

The victor will be the team that bests their best first.

Sharks Win Game 4, Take 3-1 Series Lead

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

By Mary Walsh

AP photo: Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick was kept busy all night by the Sharks here a shot goes wide in the first period at SAP Center on Wednesday night

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks defeated the Los Angeles Kings at SAP Center on Wednesday, by a score of 3-2. The win gives San Jose a 3-1 series lead, sometimes called a stranglehold. Despite rumors that there would be changes to the Sharks lineup for Game 4, there were none. Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer did not even alter his line combinations. The lack of change paid off. The team as a whole was sharper and more balanced than it had been on Monday. Even when they gave up two goals early in the third period, they corrected quickly enough to hold on for the win. It was altogether an impressive performance.

The fourth line that struggled in Game 3 pulled themselves together and played very effective minutes. After Wednesday’s game, coach DeBoer talked about the line of Chris Tierney, Tommy Wingels and Nick Spaling:

They were excellent. Again, I think with our group, every time this year that we’ve challenged them to be better, they responded and I think that speaks to the character in the room. And those guys I thought were excellent tonight for us. I didn’t hesitate to put them out with four or five minutes left in the game.

All three Sharks goals were power play goals, scored over four power plays. This was a vast improvement over their 0-5 power play performance Monday. The game winner was scored by Patrick Marleau, with additional goals scored by Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski. Martin Jones made 26 saves for the Sharks. Jonathan Quick also made 26 saves, for the Kings. Los Angeles goals were scored by Trevor Lewis and Luke Schenn.

The Sharks spent most of the first five minutes in the Kings zone, but could not find any good shots. Near the five-minute mark, the Kings went the other way, frst two on one, then when Justin Braun caught up to them, three on two. That led to a prolonged attack in the Sharks’ zone. Martin Jones stopped the three shots that came his way, but when the Sharks finally got the puck out it was by icing it. The Sharks were on their heels for several minutes even after that. Their forays into the Kings’ zone were short and not productive. Slowly, the Sharks started pushing back. They were spending less time trapped in their own zone when the 10 minute mark ticked by. But the shots were still 7-2 Los Angeles.

By the time the period ended, the Sharks had corrected that disparity. They saw a good number of excellent chances pass them by, since no one was in the right spot to take advantage of unexpected, glaring opportunities. The shots were 11-8 San Jose, and 9-2 San Jose for the second half of the period. The teams were even in faceoff wins.

Jeff Carter started the second off with a roughing penalty 30 seconds in, against Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The Sharks maintained the attack for a solid 40 seconds and then a crazy bounce sent the puck off the back boards and through the crease, then off a skater and back through the crease, still not going in. This disrupted the play enough for the Kings to clear the zone.

The Sharks retrieved the puck behind their own goal line and resumed the attack. This time the Sharks did not take long. A cross-ice pass from Joel Ward to Brent Burns found him above the left faceoff circle. Quick could not get across in time and Burns’ trademark shot blew by him to give the Sharks the lead. Assist went to Ward and Vlasic.

Before the cheers died down, play had resumed and Jonathan Quick was handling the puck behind his net. Matt Nieto, chasing the puck down, caught Quick in the back of his skates. Both players went down and Nieto went to the box. The Sharks penalty killers started out well and had a short-handed chance half way through the penalty, with Chris Tierney almost skating in front of Quick for a shot before being held up by Kings defenders.

In the final seconds of the penalty kill, Karlsson, Vlasic and Thornton carried play back into the offensive zone and set the Kings spinning for a shift.

Unfortunately, that penalty kill was followed by another less than a minute later. Joel Ward was called for high sticking. The Kings had a good chance about half way through but an overhead clear by Vlasic allowed the Sharks to regroup and change.
The Sharks finished that up with another short handed chanced, and not long after it expired, yet another outrageously improbable missed chance. A Kings skater got tangled up with his goalie and a Shark and all were out of play for several seconds, with the puck sitting in the blue paint. No Sharks skater could get to it, including the one trapped in the body tangle inches away.

The score remained 1-0.

The Sharks drew another power play when Tomas Hertl was tripped next to the Kings net by Rob Scuderi. 39 seconds into the power play, Patrick Marleau sent the puck behind the net to Thornton, who sent it out front for Joe Pavelski. A fast shot as he fell to his knees earned Pavelski his fourth goal of the playoffs.

The game tempo increased after that. The Sharks drove play for a long spell after that. When they did not have th epuck, they wasted little time stripping the Kings of it, or knocking them off of it. Brenden Dillon made Dustin Brown pay for sendng the puck around the boards, and Patrick Marleau added a solid hit or two.

The Kings finally did get some traction in the last three minutes of play, but it did not last for more than a minute. The Sharks were back in the Kings’ zone at 7:30 when Luke Schenn was caught roughing Joe Thornton. The Sharks did not convert on their third power play but the Kings did not take any leisurely skates into the Sharks’ zone either.

The shots for the period were 13-8 San Jose.

The teams picked up where they left off for the third. 1:34 into the period, Jamie McBain caught Joonas Donskoi in the face with a high stick. Five seconds into that penalty, Patrick Marleau stopped the puck with a skate, kicked it to his stick, and put the puck in the net. Assists went to Logan Couture and Brent Burns.

The Kings got on the board just 69 seconds later when Luke Schenn’s shot from the blue line got by Martin Jones. Trevor Lewis was in front of Jones, wrestling with a Sharks defender. As the shot came in, Lewis fell into Jones. Coach DeBoer challenged the goal for goaltender interference but the call stood up. The goal went to Lewis, with assists to Luke Schenn and Kris Versteeg.

The game got a little more interesting at 6:44, when Schenn took a shot through a long line of traffic and beat Jones, closing the gap to one goal. Assists went to Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik.

After that, the Kings tried more of those shots, but Jones seemed to see them better. The Kings kept pushing, they caught up on the shot clock, and as the final minutes ticked away, the game lost none of its intensity. The Sharks spent a lot of time with the puck but they were not getting the shots or the chances they had before. Even with the Kings net empty, the Kings kept the Sharks from taking good shots. The Sharks managed a couple of shots from their own zone but missed the net.

With 18.3 seconds to go, Los Angeles took their time out, then sent six skaters back on the ice for an offensive zone draw. It was to no avail as Game 4 slipped away from the Kings.

Game 5 will be back in Los Angeles at Staples Center on Friday.

Sharks Win Last Game Before Playoffs

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: Arizona Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith stops a shot from the San Jose Sharks Tomas Hertl (48) during the first period at SAP Center Saturday

SAN JOSE- The San Jose Sharks defeated the Arizona Coyotes to win their final game of the 2015-16 regular season. The lone goal of the game was scored by Joe Pavelski in a third period power play. Martin Jones made 20 saves for the shutout. It took the Sharks 32 shots to get one by Arizona’s Mike Smith.

In Los Angeles, meantime, the Kings fell in a shootout to the Winnipeg Jets. As a result, the Anaheim Ducks have a chance to supplant the Kings at the top of the Pacific Division on Sunday. The Sharks, therefore, do not know yet who they will play to start the first round of the playoffs.

Paul Martin did not play on Saturday, and Mirco Mueller got the call to fill in. Mueller started the game with Justin Braun, while Dylan DeMelo was paired with Brent Burns. Dainius Zubrus was back in the lineup after missing Thursday’s game, on a line with Tommy Wingels and Chris Tierney.

The Sharks were on the penalty kill early in the first, after a boarding call to Roman Polak. Arizona did not do much with that, and not long after the penalty expired, the Sharks had their first power play. With Connor Murphy in the box for two minutes, the Sharks did not even manage a shot on goal.

The teams were almost half way through the first when Polak dropped the gloves with Shane Doan. That sprouted from some bumping and pushing in the Sharks’ zone that also involved Joe Pavelski. Polak went to the box for his five minutes, but the Sharks wound up with a four minute power play, as Shane Doan received two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, two minutes for instigating a fight, five minutes for fighting, and a ten minute misconduct. Anthony Duclair served the four minutes for Doan.

The Sharks power play still did not produce. Better chances came back at even strength, where the Sharks kept the pressure on the Arizona defense.

The Sharks had a third power play in the first period, when Oliver Ekman-Larsson went to the box for hooking. The Sharks went 0-3 on the power play in the first period.

To start the second period, coach DeBoer switched his defensive pairs around, putting Justin Braun with Brent Burns, and Mueller with DeMelo. Arizona came out with some grit, trapping the Sharks in their own zone for a couple of minutes, but that seemed unrelated to the line adjustments, as Polak and Dillon were on the blue line for that unhappy spell.

The Coyotes had their second power play at 5:20 of the second, a cross checking call to Joel Ward. The Sharks’ penalty kill was a little fast and loose but it was effective and showed the Sharks to advantage. That was the only penalty for the second period, and by the end of forty minutes the game was still scoreless.

It was on the Sharks’ fourth power play of the game that they finally scored. The Sharks had a two man advantage at 6:33 of the third period, after Boyd Gordon was called for hi-sticking and Oliver Ekman-Larsson was called for unsportsmanlike conduct simultaneously. A little under a minute into the power play, Joe Pavelski scored his 38th of the season. Assists went to Joe Thornton and Brent Burns.

The NHL Playoffs start on Wednesday and a more specific schedule is expected late Sunday.

The Sharks presented their end of season awards during and after the game. Joe Thornton received the Sharks Foundation Player of the Year Award, as voted on by members of the media. Joe Pavelski won the Xactly Inspired Performance Three Stars of the Year Award, for the number of times he was named as one of the stars of the game. Joonas Donskoi took home the Rookie of the Year Award presented by SAP, also voted on by members of the media. Brent Burns won the Fan Favorite Award presented by Enterprise Exotic Car Collection. This was tabulated by fan votes on social media.

Saturday’s game was the 300th NHL game for Tommy Wingels and 200th for Tomas Hertl.

Sharks Come Back in Third to Beat Predators

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: San Jose Sharks Tomas Hertl celebrates his third period goal against the Nashville Predators on Saturday night

Thanks to two goals from Tomas Hertl and a shootout winner from Logan Couture, the San Jose Sharks came back in the third period to defeat the Nashville Predators 3-2. The win puts the Sharks just three points out of first in the Pacific, but with only three games remaining, the chances are slim that they will catch Los Angeles or Anaheim.

After the game, Sharks goaltender James Reimer talked about how the win bodes well for the playoffs:

It’s good to see. Obviously, sometimes things aren’t going to go your way in the playoffs and so …I’m sure they’ve been doing it all year, but to have the confidence that you can come back from being down two goals in the last twenty, it’s nice to see and another good building block leading up to the playoffs.

With their 27th road win this season, the Sharks tied a franchise record. The last time the Sharks won 27 road games in a season was 2007-08. The Sharks have just one more chance to break the record, on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

The third period comeback featured a 13-4 shot disparity in favor of the Sharks. San Jose also made an impressive showing in the faceoff circle, winning 71% of the draws in the game.

The first goal came 8:07 into the first period, after a neutral zone turnover from Chris Tierney that ended up on Roman Josi’s stick. His pass found Mike Ribeiro near the far boards. He waited for Weber to cross the blue line and set him up for one of his phenomenal slap shots.

Before the first period ended, Ryan Johansen seemed to score a power play goal for the Predators, but officials determined that time had run out before the puck crossed the line. The difference was razor thin.

The second Nashville goal came early in the second period. Johansen took the puck into the zone and held onto it long enough to find James Neal in the slot. Neal took a shot that bounced off of Jarnkrok’s skate and into the net. Brenden Dillon had Jarnkrok tied up but he could not control the puck’s trajectory as it went through their skates.

Just over two minutes into the third period, Joe Thornton gained control of the puck just below the Nashville blue line and made a quick pass to Joe Pavelski as he bore down on the net. Pavelski’s shot came back out in a rebound but Hertl was there to pick it up and put it back in for his 20th of the season.

Just past the ten minute mark of the third, Hertl tipped a slap shot from the blue line courtesy of Brent Burns. The play before that was fairly dazzling, as Thornton and Paul Martin moved the puck up and down the boards before Thornton found Burns with a quick pass.

The Sharks could not end it in overtime despite a power play 50 seconds in. A broken stick for Pavelski certainly had something to do with that. The Sharks managed five shots in overtime, while only allowing one to the Predators.

In the shootout, Logan Couture shot first for San Jose and scored with a quick release that went under Hutton’s pad. Joonas Donskoi shot second for the Sharks but missed. James Reimer stopped shots from Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and Craig Smith to win it.

Penalty kills were perfect for both teams, as the Sharks power play went 0-3 and the Predators power play went 0-2.

The Sharks next play in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday at 5:00 PT.

Sharks Fend Off Bruins in 3-2 Win

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: The Sharks Logan Couture (39) battles with the Bruins Ryan Spooner for the puck during a second period face off on Tuesday night

SAN JOSE– For the second time this season, the San Jose Sharks defeated the Boston Bruins. The score was 3-2, with Sharks goals from Joonas Donskoi, Melker Karlsson and Brent Burns. With his 26th goal, Brent Burns tied the Sharks record for goals scored by a defenseman in a season, set by Sandis Ozolinsh. With 11 goals and 31 points, Donskoi is the highest scoring Sharks rookie since Logan Couture.

James Reimer made 21 saves on 23 Boston shots for the win. David Krejci and Loui Eriksson scored for the Bruins, with Tuuka Rask making 24 saves for Boston on 27 San Jose shots.

Melker Karlsson opened the scoring for the Sharks at 8:44. After winning the puck along the boards, Karlsson dropped it to Logan Couture and went to the front of the net. Couture sent the puck behind the net to Donskoi, who passed it ahead for Karlsson to put away. Assists went to to Donskoi and Couture.

The Bruins answered back at 11:26. David Pastrnak got by the Sharks defense and took a shot into Reimer’s pads. Reimer kicked the puck back out but right in David Krejci’s wheelhouse. His quick shot went under Reimer to tie the game. Assists went to Pastrnak and Torey Krug.

The first penalty of the game came with just 2:54 left in the first period. It was a hooking call against Jimmy Hayes. The power play did not go very well for the Sharks, and 39 seconds in, Boston scored short handed. Loui Eriksson broke away,and it was the second Boston breakaway in that power play, to beat Reimer and give the Bruins the lead.

The Sharks had one second of five on three, and then the rest of the period five on four against Boston. At the end of the first penalty, David Krejci finished up another breakaway with a slash to James Reimer, after the whistle blew.

The period ended with the Bruins up 2-1 and the Sharks ahead in shots 12-10.

The Sharks finished the remainder of that power play to start the second period. They did not give up another short handed goal and they did add a couple of shots to their tally.

At 11:46, Brent Burns tied the game. Burns made a pass through the slot in the direction of Thornton, but instead the puck hit Ryan Spooner and bounced into the net.

The game winner did not come until the third period, during the dying seconds of another Sharks power play. Jimmy Hayes was in the box for an illegal check to the head of Sharks defenseman Justin Braun. The Sharks’ first power play unit had been unsuccesful, allowing another short-handed chance, this time to Brad Marchand. Marchand also made some little extra contact with Reimer after his shot was stopped. That drew some reaction from the Sharks. The second unit came on with 1:22 left in the power play, with Tomas Hertl taking a defensive zone draw. The Sharks controlled the puck but after their first dump-in the Bruins pushed the puck back out quickly.

Donskoi dumped the puck in on their next entry and the Sharks retrieved the puck along the end boards. A pass from Vlasic to Burns wound up on Burns’ skate. Burns moved the puck from skate to stick, and found Joel Ward on the far side of the slot. Ward waited a beat and picked his shot. Donskoi was in front of the net, with his stick on the ice in front of Rask. The deflected shot went just under the diving goaltender and in the net. Assists went to Ward and Burns.

The Sharks took their first and only penalty at 10:20 of the third period. Donskoi went to the box for holding the stick, but the Bruins power play did not change the score, and the Bruins did not get any shots despite a couple of good attacks.

Back at even strength, the Bruins made a push in the final minutes of the game but the Sharks held them off for the win.

The three stars of the game were Joonas Donskoi, Melker Karlsson and David Krejci.

Sharks forward Tommy Wingels was off IR Tuesday, but did not play.

The Sharks next play on Thursday in Arizona, against the Coyotes at 7:00 PT.

Sharks Take Washington 5-2

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By Mary Walsh

AP photo: The San Jose Sharks goalie Martin Jones stops one of 23 shots against by the Washington Caps on Saturday night

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks defeated the visiting Washington Capitals by a score of 5-2 on Saturday. A wide variety of goals came from Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Brenden Dillon, Brent Burns and Joe Thornton. A power play goal, a short-handed goal, two even strength goals and an empty netter, combined with a strong defensive game showed the Sharks to advantage against the best team in the NHL. One more win will clinch a playoff berth for the Capitals, but they would not get it Saturday.

Goaltender Martin Jones made 23 saves for the Sharks, and some of those saves were more harrowing than others. He stopped a shot from a two-on-none breakaway in the second period. He stopped a penalty shot. He stopped a couple of shots that looked fairly unstoppable. He stopped almost everything the Caps threw at him. At the other end, Philipp Grubauer also made 23 saves, but the Sharks took more shots.

Tomas Hertl drew the first penalty of the game, a slashing penalty to Jason Chimera at 5:02. The Sharks power play was not systemically weak, but they seemed to have a lot of trouble handling the puck, as if it were bouncing or sticking unexpectedly. The Capitals did not have the same problem, so one could assume the problem was the opponent and not the ice. The Sharks had two shots on goal in the power play, but no goal.

The Sharks did score first, during some confusion at the Washington end of the ice. Joe Thornton was not confused, nor was Brenden Dillon, who sent the puck to the net and created a rebound for Thornton to pick up. Assists went to Dillon and Tomas Hertl.

The Capitals responded with several good chances of their own, but the Sharks minimized their time and space. On one play, a Shark lost his footing at the Caps blue line, allowing Ovechkin to escape through the neutral zone. Some good hustle from the Sharks defense got in his way before he could get a shot off.

Despite the pressure from the Caps, the Sharks maintained a small 11-9 lead on the shot clock as the first period wound to a close. With 14 seconds left in the period, Nick Spaling was called for a high stick against Jason Chimera.

The Sharks started the second period on the penalty kill and added a second penalty just 20 seconds in, a delay of game to Brent Burns. The three defenders for the Sharks were Joel Ward, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun. They stopped a couple of shots but eventually the skilled Washington power play was too much and TJ Oshie tied the game. Assists to Niklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin.

The Sharks went back on the penalty kill at 3:39, a boarding call against Joe Thornton. Couture, Martin, Burns and Karlsson started the kill, cleared the puck, and made way for a second unit of Vlasic, Braun, Marleau and Ward. The latter two broke away in the final 30 seconds of the kill for a two on one and a short-handed goal. The goal was Marleau’s, due to a last-second pass from Ward. A second assist went to Vlasic. It was Marleau’s 476th goal, putting him in 51st place among NHL all-time goal scorers.

The Caps had another excellent breakaway chance, with two skaters crossing the Sharks blue line without an escort. Sharks defenders got back in time to give the puck carrier a little grief, but he got a pass away to Matt Niskanen, who had time to take a shot. Martin Jones handled the shot cleanly and held on to the puck.

The Caps tied the game again just past the midway point. After a series of fumbles by the Sharks, from overskating the puck to drop-passing it to no one, the Caps launched a brief attack that ended with the puck taking an odd bounce off a skater in front of the net, and over Martin Jones’ pads. The goal went to Justin Williams, with assists to Evgeni Kuznetsov and Andrei Burakovsky.

The Sharks finished up the period with a power play, a hooking penalty to Kuznestov, drawn by Joonas Donskoi. The Sharks power play was interrupted when Jay Beagle earned a penalty shot when Burns slashed him during a short-handed breakaway. Jones stopped the shot and the Sharks power play carried over to the third period.

Joe Pavelski was not having a particularly good game, but 49 seconds into the third period he scored a power play goal. A fairly straight-forward play started with a pass from Brent Burns to Joe Thornton. Pavelski caught the pass from Thornton and backhanded it past Grubauer for the Sharks’ third lead of the game.

Another player’s game improved dramatically early in the third: Brenden Dillon’s. Although he already had a point, he did not have a good second period. At 2:51 of the third, however, he picked up Tierney’s pass on the blue line and sent a hard shot at the Washington net. The puck laced its way through traffic and gave Dillon his second goal of the season. Assists went to Tierney and Roman Polak. That was Polak’s first point since joining the Sharks jst before the trade deadline.

Couture had a chance shortly after that, finding himself briefly one on one with Grubauer. Grubauer snatched the puck out of the air and kept the score 4-2 Sharks.

Just past the midway point of the period, Joonas Donskoi blocked a pass with his stick and the puck deflected onto the Sharks bench, hitting Paul Martin. He left the bench with a trainer but returned to the ice during the next commercial break.

With a little over three minutes left, the referees drew the crowd’s ire after Mike Weber spent some time shoving Melker Karlsson’s face into the ice while kneeling on his back. It looked very much out of order but no penalty was called.

An empty net goal from Brent Burns closed it out.

The Sharks next play on Tuesday against the visiting Boston Bruins.