• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Sharks trip up Kings to keep pace in Pacific chase

Apr 6, 2012 - 6:32 AM Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Joe Pavelski's goal in the third round of the shootout gave the San Jose Sharks a 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

After Mike Richards and Ryane Clowe were both denied in the first round, Dustin Brown's attempt went wide of the net. Pavelski then cruised down the center of the ice before lifting a wrister over the glove of Jonathan Quick and into the top-right corner of the net.

Anze Kopitar had a chance to keep the game alive but his shot was trapped in the glove of Antti Niemi to seal the win for the Sharks.

Los Angeles still sits in the top spot in the Pacific Division with 94 points and holds the tiebreaker over San Jose, which also has 94 points and sits in seventh in the Western Conference. Idle Phoenix is one point back in the eighth spot with a game in hand.

All three of the above teams clinched a playoff spot in Thursday after Dallas lost to Nashville.

"Regardless of what happened in Nashville tonight, it would have been nice to kind of more or less do it ourselves with a win," Brown said. "Our destiny lies in our own hands to some extent."

Jason Demers, Joe Thornton, Clowe, Patrick Marleau and Martin Havlat tallied goals for the Sharks, who won their third straight. Niemi stopped 31-of-36 shots.

Justin Williams scored twice, while Alec Martinez, Jarret Stoll and Brown also lit the lamp for Los Angeles. Quick turned aside 26 shots in the Kings' second loss in three games.

The Sharks entered the third period trailing, 3-2, but Clowe managed to knot the game at three just 1:10 into the period when he finished a breakaway with a wrister into the top-right corner.

Each team then tallied a pair of power-play goals apiece in the third period to force overtime.

The first came off the stick of Williams with a wrister past the glove side at the 3:54 mark, but Marleau ripped a shot from the left circle that found its way into the net through a crowd 61 seconds later.

Havlat's snap shot from the slot made it a 5-4 contest with 7:23 remaining, but consecutive penalties to T.J. Galiardi and Marleau gave the Kings a 1:18 long two-man advantage and they took advantage with Williams' second goal of the third period with 3:31 left in regulation.

On the remaining power play, Stoll was racing down the right side of the ice on a rush when Clowe, who was sitting on the bench, reached his stick out and disrupted the puck from Stoll.

Stoll immediately looked at the referee, but none of the officials on the ice saw the play and no penalty was called.

"I don't know if my stick touched the puck," said Clowe about the play. "I'll have to watch the tape."

Quick was forced to make five saves in overtime as the Sharks were given a power play in OT, while Niemi stopped the lone shot he faced in the extra frame to necessitate the shootout.

A pair of rebound goals by Martinez and Demers in the first period made it a 1-1 contest heading into the second.

The Sharks failed to take advantage of a five-minute major boarding penalty on Kyle Clifford that carried into the second period, and Stoll got the last hack of a loose puck in the crease 8:54 into the middle stanza after Niemi couldn't corral a rebound for a power-play goal and a 2-1 Los Angeles lead.

Brown snuck a wrister through a crowd and past Niemi's stick side at the 13:19 mark of the second before Thornton's tip-in while on the power play with 28 seconds left in the second made it a 3-2 game entering the third period.

Game Notes

San Jose ended the regular season with a 17-17-7 mark as the visitor...Los Angeles finished the regular season with a 22-14-5 mark at home...The Sharks went 3-for-6 on the power play, while the Kings were 4-for-7 on the power play.