Two first-period goals and a solid road game were more than enough to keep the Sharks rolling. Tommy Wingels and Chris Tierney scored in the first 9:56, and Martin Jones made 23 saves to help the San Jose Sharks to a 3-1 win against the Coyotes at Gila River Arena. With the players' fathers on hand, San Jose improved to 6-0-1 in its past seven games, outscoring opponents 29-13 during that span.
The Sharks stayed in second place in the Pacific Division; they are even with the Vancouver Canucks but have three games in hand. The Coyotes dropped two points behind San Jose and Vancouver, a 4-2 winner at the Boston Bruins earlier Thursday.
Patrick Marleau hit the empty net with 52 seconds left for his 29th career goal against the Coyotes. Jones' biggest save came when he stopped Shane Doan point blank on a deflection of a Max Domi pass in the second period. The Sharks are 16-6-2 on the road. Only the Washington Capitals (17) have more road wins.
Brad Richardson brought Phoenix within a goal with 8:36 left in regulation, but the Coyotes have scored two goals in the past three games. They are 0-3-1 after a four-game winning streak. Louis Domingue made 20 saves for the Coyotes, who were 10-1-2 against Pacific opponents this season. But the Coyotes fell behind quickly when the Sharks dominated the first 10 minutes, hemming the Coyotes in their end and scoring two unconventional goals.
At 6:23, Mikkel Boedker deflected an attempted pass by Justin Braun high in the air. Wingels gloved the puck in the slot with his back to the net, laid it down, whirled and fired a shot that beat Domingue inside the left post. It was Wingels' fourth goal and first in 12 games.
San Jose made it 2-0 at 9:56 when Tierney pushed a weak shot toward the net from behind the goal line that Domingue couldn't handle. The pucks slid into the crease and went off the sticks of Boyd Gordon and Nicklas Grossman before Tierney was able to tumble the puck over Domingue's pad.
The game stayed 2-0 until the third period, when the Coyotes made their push and beat Jones. Doan won a puck battle along the boards and slid a pass to Richardson in the slot. Jones stopped Richardson's forehand shot, but he poked the rebound into the net with a backhand at 11:24 to pull the Coyotes within 2-1. But that's as close as they got. The Sharks host the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Tierney, a 21-year-old, has three goals and seven points in seven games since returning after a short stint with the San Jose Barracuda of the American Hockey League in early January.
Sharks Bites
Tommy Wingels: "Every game is important, but this was especially important because we are close in the standings, in the same division and we play each other a lot going forward. These are two points you need, and I don't think we'd be very happy with ourselves if we didn't get them. Plus it's our favorite game of the year with the dads here.""I tried to put the puck down as quickly as I could and get it to the net. Sometimes they are ready for that, sometimes they're not."
Peter DeBoer: "I really liked our game. From our goalie to our special teams to the four lines and six defensemen, we got contributions from everybody. We've been a good road team all year and I was really comfortable that we were going to show up and play a good game."
Chris Tierney: "It was bouncing all around and luckily I got a piece of it before the net came off. After I came back up I just wanted to treat it as a restart and have a fresh mindset coming to work every day. It's going well now, so hopefully I can keep it up."
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