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Pavelski's strong rookie season continues as Sharks down Kings

Dec 13, 2006 - 6:08 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Joe Pavelski is an unlikely candidate to turn the NHL on its collective ear.

Pavelski continued his torrid scoring pace with two goals to help the San Jose Sharks to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

San Jose's seventh-round pick in the 2003 draft, Pavelski has seven goals in his first 10 NHL games.

"Any time Joe Thornton has the puck he creates time and space for me," Pavelski said. "My fast start has been like a dream come true for me."

His first goal in this one came when he streaked out of the penalty box after serving a bench minor penalty, sped in on a breakaway and snapped the puck over the blocker of goaltender Dan Cloutier to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead at 8:59 of the second period.

"At first, you can't believe you're playing with guys like Thornton and (Jonathan) Cheechoo, but then you get over it real fast," Pavelski said. "You have to in order to stay in the NHL."

Pavelski upped San Jose's advantage to 3-0 at 4:43 of the third period on the power play when he jammed his own rebound past Cloutier after taking a pass from Thornton.

"The Sharks are a team that thrives off of being great on their power play and they didn't cheat us tonight," Los Angeles coach Marc Crawford said. "Their top guys were their top guys tonight, and on their power play is where they did their damage."

Thornton, who has seven assists in his last three games, has set up seven of San Jose's last 10 goals.

Steve Bernier scored the other San Jose goal, his 10th, while Lubomir Visnovsky scored the Los Angeles goal. Visnovsky has two goals and six assists in his last eight games.

Evgeni Nabokov made 36 saves for the Sharks, who went 2-for-7 on the power play. Nabokov improved to 4-1-0 with four goals allowed in his last five starts.

"They put on a lot of pressure and they were making me work," Nabokov said. "We knew that they were going to come out hard, and that they were going to put pressure on our defense. I thought our guys were pretty good tonight."

Cloutier finished with 28 saves for the Kings, who went 0-for-6 with the extra skater. They shoot from everywhere and we know that," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said of Los Angeles' power play. "We watched their games against Anaheim when they always get more than 40 shots. They are not always dangerous but they make the goalie work, and they try and wear them down."

The Sharks, who improved to 8-2-0 in their last 10, host the Kings in a rematch on Thursday.