San Jose Sharks blow lead, beat Los Angeles Kings in shootout
The San Jose Sharks on Tuesday were once again their own worst enemy in the second period, but came up big in the late going
The San Jose Sharks on Tuesday were once again their own worst enemy in the second period, not to mention midway through the third.
They saved themselves with less than a minute to go in regulation time, and came up big once again in the shootout.
Evander Kane scored with 45 seconds left in the third period to tie the game, and Logan Couture and Martin Jones both shined in the shootout as the Sharks beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 at Staples Center.
Couture scored on Kings goalie Cal Petersen, and Jones stopped Gabriel Vilardi with a remarkable toe save in the third round of the shootout, as the Sharks (5-5-1) picked up another two points the hard way in the first meeting of the season between the two California rivals.
The Sharks are now 4-1 in shootouts this season, as they improved to a .500 points percentage for the first time since Jan. 24 when they were 3-3-0 after a 5-3 win over the Minnesota Wild.
“We’re gutting out some points on the road,” said Sharks coach Bob Boughner, whose team went 1-0-1 against the Anaheim Ducks last week. “Five out of six (points) on the trip and we could have seven of eight if we have a good performance on Thursday before we go home.”
Jones made 24 saves and is now 4-0 in shootouts this season. He has 40 wins after regulation time since 2015-16, most in NHL during that span. His 15 shootout wins in that time also lead the league.
“Something you do in practice a little bit here and there,” Jones said when asked if he’s paid closer attention to shootouts recently. “These are obviously important points, but I got my hands full working on some other stuff.”
The Sharks coughed up a two-goal lead in the second period and a turnover in the offensive zone led to a Dustin Brown goal and a 3-2 Kings lead.
A Matt Nieto turnover in the Kings zone led to an odd man rush by Los Angeles, capped by Brown’s goal at the 10:45 mark of the third period.
The game had to rank as one of the weirdest of the season for the Sharks. Not only were they unable to hold onto a lead, but the game against a team they know they’ll need to dominate this season if they want to give themselves a chance to make the playoffs.
“It was a little bit of a roller coaster,” Couture said. “First period was obviously great, second period, we had a lull, as we’ve done most of the season. So we got to figure out a way to change that.
“Third period was OK, but it was nice to score a goal with less than a minute left. Getting that point and getting the second one in the shootout is very important right now. So we’ll take it, but there’s a lot of stuff we can definitely clean up.”
The Sharks finish their two-game series with the Kings on Thursday before they return to San Jose to play their home opener on Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
First period goals by Timo Meier and Couture were matched by Anze Kopitar and Brown in the second period, two Kings goals that came off Sharks miscues.
Brent Burns drifted too far away from the middle of the ice as Kopitar scored on a breakaway at the 7:00 mark, and Brown’s came 17 seconds after the Sharks took a too many men penalty at the 17:37 mark. The Sharks took three minor penalties in the second period.
The Sharks have scored just five second period goals in 11 games this season, and now have a -15 goal differential in the middle period, now the worst in the NHL.
Couture’s goal was his team-leading sixth of the season, and came off assists from Patrick Marleau and Nikolai Knyzhov. The assist for Marleau was the 628th of his career, as he passed Mike Gartner for 80th on the NHL’s all-time assist list. Marleau was playing in his 1,734th career NHL game, as he moved into sole possession of third place on the league’s all-time games played list, one more than Jaromir Jagr.
Meier’s goal, his second of the season, came just 80 seconds into the game. Alone in front of the Los Angeles net, Meier took a backhand pass from Ryan Donato and beat Petersen to snap an eight-game goal drought.
Boughner perhaps went against the grain by starting Jones on Tuesday.
In 20 career games against his former team, Jones has a 13-4-3 record with a .930 save percentage and a 2.08 goals against average. In two games last season against Los Angeles, Jones was 2-0-0 with a .943 save percentage and a 1.97 goals against average. Jones is also largely responsible for three extra points for his team this year with a 3-0 record.
Still, Devan Dubnyk was coming off a 32-save performance Saturday when the Sharks lost to the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 in a shootout.
Although he has a 0-3-1 this season, Dubnyk has done everything but win. In his last four games, including three starts, Dubnyk has a .934 save percentage, sixth-best among all NHL goalies who have played at least four games in that time.