SAN JOSE, Calif. _ The San Jose Sharks' game Thursday against the Vegas Golden Knights provided the type of atmosphere normally associated with the NHL playoffs.
Logan Couture made sure the sold-out crowd at SAP Center went home happy.
Couture kept the puck on a rush up the ice with Marc-Edouard Vlasic, cut to the middle and beat goalie Malcolm Subban with a perfectly-placed backhand 39 seconds into overtime as the Sharks beat Vegas 2-1 for their sixth straight victory.
Brent Burns also scored, and Sharks goalie Martin Jones made 24 saves as the Sharks, now have 93 points, sit seven points back of the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights and four ahead of the third place Los Angeles Kings with eight games left to play.
For three periods, the biggest thing that stood in the Sharks' way of a sixth consecutive victory was the play of Subban, who had 42 saves by the end of regulation time.
The Sharks could have put the game away earlier as their power play looked dangerous at times, but was unable to take advantage despite numerous opportunities.
The Sharks came up empty on six tries with the man-advantage that totaled 9 minutes and 40 seconds. That almost proved costly in a game decided by a whisker-thin margin.
The Sharks mostly dominated the second period as they outshot the Golden Knights 18-4, allowing only one shot against in the first 10-plus minutes.
They likely felt that they deserved more than one goal.
After some nice work on the forecheck by the Sharks' fourth line, Burns took a pass from Paul Martin along the blue line and fired a wrist shot that got through traffic and past Subban. Burns' goal, his first since Feb. 15, came at the 3:27 mark of the second period.
But the Sharks could not take the lead despite enjoying a four-minute power play shortly after Burns' goal, as Vegas defenseman Colin Miller was called for high-sticking Marc-Edouard Vlasic at the 5:07 mark of the second. Vlasic went to the Sharks' dressing room after the high stick, but returned to the ice shortly after.
The Sharks also couldn't take advantage of more power play time at the end of the second period into the third, and even had 24 seconds with a 5-on-3.
Vegas opened the scoring at the 3:47 mark of the first period.
Tomas Tatar collected a loose puck along the boards inside the Sharks zone after his redirection of a Shea Theodore shot from the point went off the post.
He sent the puck back to Theodore, who passed to Jonathan Marchessault along the blue line, and Marchessault found an open Tatar near the net. Tatar stickhandled around Jones and backhanded into the net for a 1-0 Golden Knights lead.
The Sharks had 13 shots on Subban in the first period, with two coming on their one power play.
The Sharks' last six-game win streak came Jan. 16-24 last year. They scored 22 goals in that stretch, but the key was defense, as they just allowed just 12, holding five of their opponents to two goals or less.
The Sharks had been a bit more free-wheeling in this most recent win streak, allowing 15 goals in that time. Most recently, though, Jones made 26 saves in San Jose's 6-2 win over New Jersey on Tuesday.
Regardless of what happened Thursday, it was going to be tough, but not impossible, for the Sharks to catch the Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division.
Of the Sharks' now eight remaining games, five are against teams presently in a playoff position. That includes three straight games on a four-game road trip that concludes March 31 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights are 26-9-2 this season.
Vegas also had eight games remaining after Thursday, starting with a home-and-home series against the red-hot Colorado Avalanche. After that, only two of their last six games were against playoff-contending teams.
The Sharks have made up some ground on the Golden Knights during their five-game win streak, going from 12 points back on the morning of March 12 to eight points back before Thursday.
More importantly to the Sharks, who scored 27 goals in their five straight wins, their play had given them some breathing room from other teams chasing a playoff spot.
They were two points up on the Los Angeles Kings _ then the first team outside of the two Wild Card spots in the Western Conference _ on March. They came into Thursday six points up on that position, held by the St. Louis Blues.
"You're always trying to hunt down teams ahead of you until you can't anymore," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said Thursday morning. "Our concentration hasn't been as much on standings as it is on our game and playing our game consistently this time of year. That always bleeds into the playoffs."
_Burns on Thursday became the 15th player in Sharks history to appear in 500 games with the team.
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