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Marleau scores twice as Sharks defeat Kings

Mar 28, 2007 - 6:52 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Patrick Marleau picked a great time to snap out of his goal-scoring slump.

Marleau scored twice and added an assist as the San Jose Sharks posted a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

Bill Guerin also tallied and defnseman Christian Ehrhoff had three assists for the Sharks (47-26-4), who remained in a second-place tie with the Dallas Stars (46-24-6), two points behind the idle Anaheim Ducks (44-20-12) in the Pacific Division.

The Sharks, winners in seven of their last nine games, also clinched a Western Conference playoff spot.

"These games are important for us," Guerin said. "I mean, the wins and the two points is huge. We want to try to get as many as we can. We're trying to find tune our game and make sure we're going into the playoffs with the right attitude in a positive way."

"When I came in after the first period to check the internet to see what was going on, I saw that Colorado lost, and I knew if we could get a couple points tonight, at least we could take care of our own business," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said.

Marleau, who entered with just one goal in his last 14 games, gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead on the power play when he jammed Ehrhoff's rebound past goaltender Sean Burke at 8:34 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.

The San Jose captain capped his fourth multi-goal game of the season when he skated in on a breakaway and backhanded the puck past Burke for a 3-1 advantage at 9:59 of the third period.

"That's nice, Patty had a great night," Wilson said. "He was flying around."

Guerin gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead when he took Ehrhoff's pass at the doorstep and roofed the puck over Burke's glove at 4:41 of the third period.

"I was just concentrating on settling the puck, just getting a shot as quick as I could," Guerin said. "Most goalies in this league go down and your chances are better when you shoot high."

"We were there after two periods and they kind of got a good break on the second one, it bounced right to Guerin in front," Burke said. "He's a goalscorer, he made a good play."

Guerin, who San Jose acquired at the February 27 trade deadline, has goals in three straight games and four of his last five.

Brian Willsie scored and Burke made 23 saves for the Kings, who have lost three of their last four games.

"We know they're dangerous guys and I thought we did a pretty good job all night of keeping them in check," Burke said. "But they got a lot of good skilled players and its hard to keep every one of them off the board and tonight it was Marleau chipping in."

Prior to the game, Sharks coach Ron Wilson was honored with a ceremony commemorating his achievement of 1,000 games NHL games coached. He became the 13th coach in league history to reach the milestone in a 4-3 overtime loss at Colorado on March 18.