SAN JOSE – The streaking San Jose Sharks rallied past the Minnesota Wild 4-3 Friday afternoon for their seventh win in eight games.
The win left San Jose with 53 points in second place in the Pacific Division. Los Angeles, the division leader, plays the Sharks Sunday night at SAP Center.
Minnesota erased a 3-2 deficit in the third period when Jarret Stoll jabbed a long rebound past goaltender Martin Jones at the 12:10 mark.
San Jose responded with the winning goal at the 18:36 mark. San Jose won an offensive-zone face-off at 18:33. Joe Thornton pulled the puck back to Joe Pavelski and the captain’s high shot flew inside the left post.
Thornton’s two assists moved him into 16th place in the NHL with 930.
The Sharks were 2-11-1 when trailing after one period going into the Wild game. San Jose responded to a 2-1 first-intermission deficit by striking for two goals in the second period.
Joonas Donskoi netted a goal and an assist in the second period.
Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon went to the box for hooking at 10:59 of the second. Donskoi scored his seventh goal of the season at 12:20 when he one-timed a cross-ice pass from Joel Ward under the goaltender’s pads from the bottom of the left circle.
Donskoi was open on a 2-on-1 rush toward goaltender Darcy Kuemper when his shot from the slot skidded off the left side of net. Logan Couture was able to secure the puck at the endboards and fed Ward for the go-ahead goal at 13:58.
The Sharks opened the game’s scoring with an even-strength goal 1:33 into play.
Tomas Hertl was on the right wing when San Jose produced a 4-on-2 rush early in the second shift of the game. Hertl was not able to convert from a sharp angle, but he kept the play alive, collected the puck at the endboards and used a wrap-around shot for the 1-0 lead.
Minnesota, coming off a 3-0 victory at Los Angeles that snapped a five-game losing streak, came away with the next two goals of the first period.
Both Wild goals came off rebounds of Jones’ saves. When Minnesota won a face-off in the San Jose zone, Marco Scandella’s hard shot from the left point produced a rebound at the edge of the crease that Chris Porter converted for the tying goal at 13:00.
Spurgeon’s shot from the left point during a Wild power play resulted in Charlie Coyle jamming the rebound past Jones with 23.8 seconds left in the period.
