NHL - Sharks Round Up - January 03-07, 2017

Los Angeles Kings @ Sharks 2-1 OT - Tuesday, January 03, 2017
Tanner Pearson scored 58 seconds into overtime to give the Los Angeles Kings a 2-1 victory against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. After a turnover by Sharks rookie forward Kevin Labanc in the Kings zone, Pearson took a pass from Jeff Carter on a 2-on-1 rush and beat goalie Martin Jones with a shot from the left faceoff circle for his 10th goal. Carter scored on the power play to tie the game 1-1 at 3:03 of the third period, and Peter Budaj made 26 saves for the Kings (19-15-4), who swept a home-and-home from the Sharks. Logan Couture scored in the second period for San Jose (23-13-2), and Jones made 33 saves.

The Sharks took a 1-0 lead on Couture's goal at 11:56 of the second period. Couture took a pass from Labanc on a rush and beat Budaj with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot. It was Couture's 12th goal of the season, fourth in four games against the Kings. Los Angeles appeared to pull even at 14:53 of the second period when Marian Gaborik put a rebound past Jones from close range. The goal was overturned after video review showed Gaborik batted the puck with his hand. Kings center Anze Kopitar had a shorthanded breakaway late in the second period, but Jones made a glove save with 17 seconds left. Carter has seven goals and two assists in the past seven games.

* The Kings were trailing 1-0 when Carter established position in the low slot and redirected a pass from defenseman Jake Muzzin past Jones. With 21 goals, Carter is second in the NHL behind Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins (26). "Just getting lucky," he said.

* Sharks forward Joonas Donskoi received a pass from defenseman Paul Martin in the low slot and took a backhand from close range at 3:17 of the second period. The puck rolled up Budaj's right arm before he hit it out of the air with his stick into the corner.

* Sharks rookie forward Timo Meier didn't get on the score sheet, but he earned a promotion from the third line to the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski in the third period because of his overall strong play and effort. Meier had a game-high seven hits and two shots on goal in 13:59 of ice time.

* Pearson and Carter teamed up on a 2-on-1 rush in overtime with only defenseman Justin Braun back to help Jones. Pearson took a pass from Carter from the right faceoff circle and shot past Jones just inside the left post from the left circle.
* The Kings are 7-1 in overtime, and the Sharks are 4-2. … Los Angeles defenseman Brayden McNabb played his 200th NHL game. ... Kings forward Tyler Toffoli (lower body) missed his sixth straight game. ... Sharks defenseman Mirco Mueller, who was called up Monday from the San Jose Barracuda of the American Hockey League, played his first NHL game of the season, 51st of his career.

"We got better as the game went on. We found a way to get a point. We wanted two. I don't know if we deserved two or not. But it's that time of year. When you take out the guys we have out of the lineup, and everyone's dealing with injuries, but it changes your team. But you've got to find a way. You scratch and claw and it's not going to look great every night, and that's the reality of it."  Sharks coach Peter DeBoer on missing injured defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic and David Schlemko

"I thought we created a lot in the third. We're just not finishing right now, and really all season. We gave up a chance in overtime, and they buried it. It is disappointing. We had a great opportunity. We didn't bring our best game. Give them credit, they played well. They took it to us at the start of both of these games." Couture said.

Wild @ Sharks 5-4 - Thursday, January 05, 2017

Mikko Koivu and Eric Staal each scored two goals, and the Minnesota Wild rallied for a 5-4 victory against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. The teams combined for six goals in the third period. The Wild trailed 4-2 after Sharks forward Patrick Marleau scored at 4:21, but they scored three straight goals, the first by Staal and the next two by Koivu, who played his 800th NHL game. Staal scored his second of the night on a tap-in at 5:06 to cut San Jose's lead to 4-3, and Minnesota tied it 4-4 at 8:23 when Koivu put a rebound past goaltender Martin Jones and inside the left post. Koivu scored again at 10:18, this time on a slap shot from the right faceoff circle, to make it 5-4. Zach Parise also scored in the third period for the Wild (24-9-4), who played for the first time since their 12-game winning streak, the longest in their history, ended with a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 31. Parise, Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund each had two assists for Minnesota. Joonas Donskoi, Joe Pavelski and Joel Ward also scored for the Sharks (23-14-2), who lost their third straight game. San Jose took a 1-0 lead on Donskoi's fifth goal at 8:22 of the second period, and Pavelski made it 2-0 when he sent his own rebound past goalie Devan Dubnyk from close range at 11:27 for his 13th goal. Staal cut the Sharks lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal with 1:01 left in the second. Parise dropped a pass to Staal, who beat Jones from the left point to the far side. Parise scored at 2:08 of the third to tie it 2-2. Jones stopped Nino Niederreiter's sharp-angled shot from below the left faceoff circle but couldn't control the rebound, and Parise scored on a slap shot from the left circle. San Jose answered with goals by linemates Ward (3:49) and Marleau to build a 4-2 lead. It was Marleau's 492nd NHL goal. Dubnyk made 30 saves.

* Koivu took a pass from Granlund in the right faceoff circle and beat Jones with a slap shot for the game-winner. "It was a hard pass," Koivu said. "It has to be a hard pass to beat the goalie, and it was right on the tape."

* The Sharks had an extra attacker on the ice when Pavelski snapped a shot through traffic, but Dubnyk made the save with 21 seconds remaining.

* After earning a promotion from the third line to the top line with Parise and Staal at the beginning of the third period, Niederreiter had an assist and helped energize a line that scored two goals in the period.

* Pavelski made two key plays before capping a great shift by scoring San Jose's second goal. He won a faceoff in the right circle, and then redirected defenseman Brent Burns' point shot on goal. Dubnyk made the save, but Pavelski lifted the rebound over the goaltender's right shoulder and into the net.

* Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin played his 300th NHL game. ... Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic (face) missed his third straight game, and defenseman David Schlemko (upper body) missed his second straight. ... San Jose forward Mikkel Boedker was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. ... Sharks rookie Timo Meier skated on the top line.

Sharks Bites

"They seemed to get all the loose pucks. They were hungrier around the net than we were. It was a grind. Pucks were just bouncing around. We were really good for two periods. It's one of those things. They get a couple bounces, they get some momentum, and they really started buzzing there in the third." said Jones, who made 21 saves.

"They came out in the third and played well. I don't think we handled their pressure coming as well as we would have liked. Hopefully, we can learn from that. We just weren't breaking out as clean as we were in the first two periods. When they were in the zone, I don't think we were closing as fast as we should. We gave them too much time." Justin Braun

Wild Quotes

"When it's a one-goal game, there's a lot of time left. You're just trying to get the pucks deep and create that forecheck and shoot it as much as we can. I thought we did that, and we got the extra one at the end." Koivu said.

"We started to move our feet a little bit in the third. We started to play a little smarter at the offensive blue line. Got it below their [defensemen] and forced them into some turnovers. That's how we got a lot of pucks back, and that's how I think we got all of our goals, really." Zach Parise

Detroit Red Wings @ Sharks 3-6 - Saturday, January 07, 2017

Joe Pavelski scored two goals in the third period to reach 600 NHL points, and the San Jose Sharks ended their three-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at SAP Center. Joonas Donskoi, Mirco Mueller, Patrick Marleau and Mikkel Boedker each scored for the Sharks (24-14-2), and Martin Jones made 32 saves for his 20th victory. It was the first time this season San Jose scored more than four goals. Thomas Vanek, Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou scored for the Red Wings (17-18-5). Detroit rookie goaltender Jared Coreau, who made 34 saves in a 4-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday for his first NHL shutout, gave up three goals on 15 shots in the first period and was replaced by Petr Mrazek at the start of the second. The Red Wings matched their season high for goals-against. The Red Wings took a 1-0 lead at 12:49 of the first period when Vanek banked a shot from the left circle off Sharks defenseman Justin Braun's left skate and between Jones' pads. San Jose made it 1-1 on Donskoi's sixth goal of the season at 15:59 of the first. Forward Tommy Wingels' shot from the point deflected off Donskoi and Detroit forward Riley Sheahan before getting past Coreau.

Mueller gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead with 2:32 left in the first when he beat Coreau with a slap shot. Marleau increased the Sharks lead to 3-1 with 29 seconds left in the first when he beat Coreau with a wrist shot for his 12th goal of the season, 493rd of his NHL career.

After neither team scored in the second period, Pavelski put San Jose up 4-1 when he deflected defenseman Brent Burns' point shot past Mrazek at 1:50 of the third. The Sharks went up 5-1 when Burns' shot banked off Boedker and past Mrazek at 4:11. Mantha scored on a rebound at 4:43 to cut San Jose's lead to 5-2. Pavelski got his 600th NHL point when he scored his 15th goal of the season off a rebound of a Joe Thornton shot at 10:31 to make it 6-2. Athanasiou scored on a slap shot at 13:46 to cut the San Jose lead to 6-3.

* Marleau stole the puck in the neutral zone, and then scored from the left faceoff circle with a shot that went off Coreau's left shoulder and into the net.

* Jones made a sprawling save on Tomas Tatar's backhand from close range at 1:25 of the second period.

* Sharks rookie forward Timo Meier had four shots on goal and five more attempts that were blocked. He also had an assist on Pavelski's first goal. Meier tracked down a loose puck along the end boards and sent a pass to Burns, whose wrist shot Pavelski deflected past Mrazek.

* Mueller put the Sharks ahead to stay with a big slap shot from above the left faceoff circle through traffic that beat Coreau to the right corner of the net. It was his second goal in 53 NHL games, first since Oct. 30, 2014.

* The Red Wings went 0-for-1 on the power play and are 0-for-54 with the man-advantage on the road since Oct. 19. They 2-for-59 in 20 road games this season. ... Injured Sharks defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic (face) and David Schlemko (upper body) were out again. Vlasic has missed the past four games, and Schlemko the past three. ... Detroit defensemen Brendan Smith (knee) and Niklas Kronwall (lower body) missed the game.

"Everyone else around us is winning games. We wanted to get this back on track. We felt we should have won last game and dropped the ball."
"[Pavelski's] an incredible player. Coaching in the [Eastern Conference] prior to this job, I didn't have a real appreciation for how good he was, or he is. He's phenomenal." Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said.
"It's a good number, I think. Played with a lot of good players here so far along the way. A lot of hockey left though. It's something that we just on a nightly basis try to show up and get the puck in and play the game." Pavelski said.

"It's nice, seeing different guys score and get on the board and get some confidence. That's not going to happen every night, but when it does, it feels good." Marleau said.

"Just good to get my first goal, and winning the game too. Had some room, and [Marleau] made a great screen for me." said Mueller, who also got his first assist of the season.