SAN JOSE, Calif. _ On a night where the San Jose Sharks desperately needed a win to stay above the pack in the Pacific Division, the team managed to fend off the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings by completing their six game homestand with a 4-2 record.
Clinging to a one-point lead over the Ducks and a two-point edge over the Kings, the Sharks handed the Detroit Red Wings their seventh consecutive loss Monday by picking up a 5-3 win at SAP Center. The Ducks, who entered the night in third place, dropped into a wild card spot by losing to the St. Louis Blues. The Kings moved into third place by beating the Vancouver Canucks.
Timo Meier picked up his second point of the game by scoring the game-winning goal on the power play at 5:12 of the third. Meier recorded his 18th goal by redirecting a Mikkel Boedker shot in the slot. Dylan DeMelo earned the secondary assist, his second of the game, giving him seven points on the homestand.
The goal was the Sharks second with the man advantage in their last 35 tries over a 15-game span.
Before Meier's heroics, Eric Fehr gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead at 12:39 of the first, scoring his first goal with the Sharks. Fehr, who joined the Sharks in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 20, recorded his first tally in 12 NHL games this season by redirecting a point shot from Brenden Dillon on a delayed Red Wings penalty.
Joonas Donskoi got the Sharks on the scoreboard just 1:44 before Fehr's goal, recording just his third goal in 26 games on a Sharks rush play. Evander Kane set Donskoi up with a shot into a wide-open net after he received a cross-ice pass from Joe Pavelski, forcing an overcommitment from goalie Jimmy Howard.
Kevin Labanc scored the Sharks' third goal at 1:39 of the second, poking the puck between Howard's pads in a scrum after Chris Tierney put a backhanded shot into the crease on a half-breakaway. The goal was Labanc's second in 18 games. Tierney iced the game with an empty-net goal at 18:26 of the third.
The Red Wings opened the scoring at 5:01 when Henrik Zetterberg fed the puck to Trevor Daley in the slot and he beat goalie Martin Jones with a shot to his glove side. Gustav Nyquist scored the Red Wings second goal amid some controversy. Nyquist tapped the puck over the goal line after Tyler Bertuzzi redirected a point shot from Daley off the left post with what appeared to be a high stick.
If Bertuzzi had scored on his redirection, the goal would have certainly been reviewed. The play, however, was not reviewable because the deflection, high stick or not, didn't produce the goal itself. Zetterberg cut the Sharks lead to 4-3 just 41 seconds after Meier's game-winning goal, punching in a pass from Nyquist.
Jones, who started all six games of the homestand, continued his stellar second-half play, making 23 saves on 26 shots. The Sharks goalie's best save came in the final minutes of the second when he stopped a Luke Glendening breakaway attempt with his right pad.
The Sharks penalty kill went 2 for 2 on the night, completing the homestand with perfect grades by going 8 for 8.
