LOS ANGELES — The San Jose Sharks on Tuesday were once again their own worst enemy in the second period, not to mention midway through the third.
They saved themselves with less than a minute to go in regulation time and came up big once again in the shootout.
Evander Kane scored with 45 seconds left in the third period to tie the game, and Logan Couture and Martin Jones both shined in the shootout as the Sharks beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 at Staples Center.
Jones stopped Gabriel Vilardi with a remarkable toe save in the third round of the shootout, as the Sharks beat the Kings in the first meeting of the season between the two California rivals.
The Sharks coughed up a two-goal lead in the second period and a turnover in the offensive zone led to a Dustin Brown goal and a 3-2 Kings lead.
The game had to rank as one of the weirdest of the season for the Sharks. Not only were they unable to hold onto a lead, but in a game against a team they know they’ll need to dominate this season if they want to give themselves a chance to make the playoffs.
The Sharks finish their two-game series with the Kings on Thursday before they return to San Jose to play their home opener on Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
First period goals by Timo Meier and Couture were matched by Anze Kopitar and Brown in the second period, two Kings goals that came off Sharks miscues.
Brent Burns drifted too far away from the middle of the ice as Kopitar scored on a breakaway at the 7:00 mark, and Brown’s came 17 seconds after the Sharks took a too-many-men penalty at the 17:37 mark.
The Sharks have scored just five second period goals in 11 games this season, and now have a -15 goal differential in the middle period, now the worst in the NHL.
Couture’s goal was his team-leading sixth of the season, and came off assists from Patrick Marleau and Nikolai Knyzhov. The assist for Marleau was the 628th of his career, as he passed Mike Gartner for 80th on the NHL’s all-time assist list. Marleau was playing in his 1,734th career NHL game, as he moved into sole possession of third place on the league’s all-time games played list, one more than Jaromir Jagr.
Meier’s goal, his second of the season, came just 80 seconds into the game. Alone in front of the Los Angeles net, Meier took a backhand pass from Ryan Donato and beat Kings goalie Cal Petersen to snap an eight-game goal drought.
Coach Bob Boughner certainly bucked some conventional wisdom by starting Jones on Tuesday.
In 20 career games against his former team, Jones has a 13-4-3 record with a .930 save percentage and a 2.08 goals against average. In two games last season against Los Angeles, Jones was 2-0-0 with a .943 save percentage and a 1.97 goals against average. Jones is also largely responsible for three extra points for his team this year with a 3-0 record.
Still, Devan Dubnyk was coming off a 32-save performance Saturday when the Sharks lost to the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 in a shootout.
Although he has a 0-3-1 record this season, Dubnyk has done everything but win. In his last four games, including three starts, Dubnyk has a .934 save percentage, sixth-best among all NHL goalies who have played at least four games in that time.
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