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Marleau's OT winner has Sharks on brink of sweep

Apr 23, 2014 - 6:04 AM Los Angeles, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Patrick Marleau scored 6:20 into overtime and the San Jose Sharks took a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 3 of this Western Conference quarterfinal series.

With the win, the Sharks took a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven series with a chance to close it out on Thursday in Los Angeles.

On the deciding goal, the puck was bouncing around in the Los Angeles end and Marleau wound up with it on his stick. Throwing a backhand on net from the left circle, it tipped off the stick of Slava Voynov and fooled Jonathan Quick to end the game.

Tomas Hertl, Matt Nieto and Brent Burns all scored for the Sharks, who got 28 saves from Antti Niemi in the victory.

"I just told our guys to settle down, play the way we know how," said San Jose head coach Todd McLellan. "We got caught out in pieces a lot. Tired players did not manage the neutral zone real well. They had the bat in their hands and they were going to swing it and they had us on their heels but sometimes it goes that way, we will take that break."

Marian Gaborik, Jeff Carter and Jarret Stoll each lit the lamp for the Kings, who saw Quick turn aside 36 shots in defeat.

"Not quite enough tonight," said Los Angeles head coach Darryl Sutter. "I thought we played a pretty good hockey game. We were pretty good tonight and so were they."

The Sharks scored the only goal of the first period and they did so on the power play as Burns flubbed a one-timer from the left circle, but he got enough of it as the puck floated over Quick's glove at 3:16.

Los Angeles scored at 4:48 of the second period on the man advantage to tie the game. Drew Doughty sent a short pass from the right point to the top of the right circle for Tyler Toffoli, who sent it over to the left circle where Stoll one-timed it in.

Just over three minutes later, the Kings took a 2-1 lead on a great effort from Gaborik, as he flew down the left wing on a 3-on-2 and kept it himself, charging to the net and lifting a backhand into the right corner.

The Sharks tied the game just over a minute later after Jason Demers threw a shot on net that Nieto deflected in.

Los Angeles went back on top again just 51 seconds into the third on the power play after Anze Kopitar's snap shot from the top of the right circle was tipped in by Carter in front.

San Jose, though, once again had an answer at 9:17 of the third when Marc- Edouard Vlasic's shot from the left circle was stopped, but Hertl took advantage of the rebound for his second of the playoffs.

Game Notes

Including the playoffs, Los Angeles had won eight straight and 10 of its last 11 home games against the Sharks entering this game ... The Sharks scored 13 goals to the Kings' two in the first two contests of this series in San Jose ... San Jose went 1-for-4 on the power play and is 3-for-13 in the series ... The Kings were 2-for-4 on the power play to move to 2-for-8 in the series ... This is the third playoff series between these two clubs, with each club taking one.