Martin Jones did what he could to lead the San Jose Sharks to a third straight victory Friday night but didn’t get much help from the skaters in front of him.
Jones stopped 20 of 22 shots through two periods but the Sharks once again couldn’t generate much offense as they opened a two-game series with the Arizona Coyotes with a 5-2 loss at Gila River Arena.
Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks. But between Hertl’s second-period goal and Marleau’s goal in the third period, the Coyotes scored four unanswered, with three coming from Christian Dvorak, Dryden Hunt and Phil Kessel in a span of 2 minutes and 11 seconds in the third period for a 5-1 Coyotes lead.
Jones finished with 23 saves for San Jose, which has now been held to two goals or fewer in four of its last five games. The Sharks and Coyotes wrap up their two-game series Saturday night.
Radim Simek left the game with 9:18 left in the third period after he was pushed hard into the end boards by Arizona forward Nick Schmaltz, who was assessed a two-minute minor for boarding.
Marleau’s goal came on the ensuing power play, the 564th goal of his NHL career, as he tied Mats Sundin and Joe Nieuwendyk (564) for 23rd on the all-time list.
The loss was a missed opportunity for the Sharks, who entered Friday in seventh place in the West Division with 30 points, seven points back of the St. Louis Blues for the fourth and final playoff spot. The Blues lost to the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 earlier Friday. The fifth-place Coyotes now have 35 points.
The Sharks were down 2-1 entering the third period.
With the Sharks killing a holding penalty to Mario Ferraro., Hertl scored his third goal in four games, taking a pass from Erik Karlsson, streaking into the Coyotes’ zone and beating Arizona goalie Adin Hill at the 1:54 mark of the second period.
The Sharks again fell behind by a goal with 1:16 left in the second period. Schmaltz won a race to the Sharks’ net and redirected a pass from Ilya Lyubushkin past Jones for his eighth goal of the season.
The Sharks started slowly and were probably lucky to be down just 1-0 after the first period.
Jones stopped 11 of 12 shots in the first 20 minutes, as Christian Dvorak scored his 10th goal of the season at the 6:40 mark of the first period. With the Sharks scrambling a bit in their own end, Conor Garland had the puck behind the San Jose net before he passed to an open Dvorak, who one-timed it past Jones for the game’s first goal.
Jones was the biggest reason why the Sharks swept a two-game series with the Los Angeles Kings earlier this week.
Jones made 42 on Wednesday for the Sharks in their 4-2 win over Los Angeles, following the 41-save performance he had in the Sharks’ 2-1 victory over the Kings on Monday. With those two games, Jones became the first Sharks goalie to stop at least 40 shots in consecutive games since Arturs Irbe in April 1993.
“This is probably the best I’ve seen him play in a long, long time,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said of Jones after Wednesday’s game. “He looks confident and he looks like he’s reading the play better.”
