SAN JOSE
– Six rounds of the shoot-out were needed Wednesday night for
the San Jose Sharks to entertain the sold-out HP Pavilion crowd
with a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
SAN JOSE – Six rounds of the shoot-out were needed Wednesday night for the San Jose Sharks to entertain the sold-out HP Pavilion crowd with a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
Ryan Clowe gave the Sharks a 2-1 edge in shoot-out goals with a deft backhander inside the top right corner of the net behind goalie Jonathan Quick. Danny Heatley kept the Sharks alive in the third round when his wrister inside the right post evened the shoot-out score at 1-1.
Evgeni Nabokov helped lift San Jose into a tie for first place in the Pacific Division with the Kings with 28 saves before adding several more in do-or-die situations in the shoot-out.
The Sharks (8-4-1) conclude the 14-game October schedule with a home date opposite the Western Conference-leading Colorado Avalanche Friday night.
“We’ll have our hands full,” San Jose coach Todd McLellan said of Friday’s rematch. “They really handed it to us in Colorado (a 5-2 loss in the season opener Oct. 1).
Los Angeles entered Wednesday’s game atop the Pacific Division with 16 points, one ahead of San Jose and two over Dallas. The Kings featured the NHL’s top scorer in Anze Kopitar, who earned three points (one goal, two assists) in the Kings’ 6-4 win over the Sharks on Oct. 6.
While Kopitar was kept off the scoresheet, Alexander Frolov earned the Kings a 1-0 lead eight minutes into the second period.
Frolov, a three-time goal scorer for the Kings, controlled the puck around the left side of the San Jose net as defenseman Dan Boyle applied pressure. Frolov’s soft shot as he circled in front of the crease appeared to be going wide until the puck deflected off the stick of Shark Marc-Edouard Vlasic and into the net.
The Kings dominated the first period in shots on net at 13-5, several times earning good scoring chances at the close range. Nabokov, earning his seventh win of the year and 256th of his career, turned back three point-blank attempts by the King forwards in the first period.
“The first period could have been ugly if Nabby hadn’t played the way he did,” said McLellan.
San Jose completed the regulation-time portion of the scoring with Patrick Marleau’s 10th
goal of the year 14:32 into the second period.
Marleau, fifth in the league’s scoring column, controlled the puck from the Shark blueline to the left circle in Kings’ territory before whipping a hard shot past the left arm of Quick. Defensemen Douglas Murray and Boyle earned assists on the equalizer.
After posting a 14-6 edge in shots in the second period, San Jose controlled most of the play in the third on the way to a 9-7 shots advantage.
After the Sharks play three games on the road next week, the team returns to the Tank on Saturday Nov. 7 opposite Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh.
