Washington nets rare win in San Jose, 3-2 in shootout

SAN JOSE – Washington snapped a 20-year stretch of losses on San Jose Sharks’ ice Saturday night by pulling out a 3-2 shootout win at sold-out SAP Center.
Nicklas Backstrom’s goal at the end of the third round gave Washington the 2-1 edge in the shootout. Rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov scored in the first round for the Capitals and Patrick Marleau scored in the third round to set up the Backstrom heroics.
The Capitals had been 0-11-1 since a win in San Jose on Oct. 30, 1993.
San Jose’s one point lifted the club to 100 points with 10 games to play. The Sharks lead Anaheim by three points in the race for the Pacific Division title. The Ducks, going into a stretch of nine games against teams out of the playoff picture, have 12 games left.
After a scoreless second period, both clubs turned to unlikely scorers to create a 2-2 tie.
James Sheppard recorded an unassisted goal 5:07 into the third to give the Sharks a 2-1 advantage.
Playing tight defense in the San Jose zone, Sheppard blocked a pass by Washington’s Jason Chimera, then pounced on the loose puck and skated past the Capitals’ defense. Sheppard deftly backhanded a shot between goaltender Braden Holtby’s pads for his third goal of the season and 13^th of his career.
Chris Brown tallied his first career NHL goal 12:30 into the third when be snapped a shot from the slot past goaltender Antti Niemi off an assist from Dustin Penner.
Capital winger Eric Fehr was credited with a goal 11:25 into the first period to begin the scoring. Fehr’s shot from the top of the right circle was turned back by Niemi. Defenseman Justin Braun attempted to clear the puck but the score became 1-1 when the puck deflected off Shark Matt Nieto and into the net.
Marleau scored his 30^th goal of the season in the closing seconds of the first period. After Nieto and Logan Couture had short shots on net defended by Holtby, Marleau turned a long rebound into the snapshot past Holtby at 19:54.
The Sharks finished with a 36-25 edge in shots on net.