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Thornton, Sharks rebound to whip Kings

Nov 23, 2006 - 6:12 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks haven't lost too many games this season. When they do, they know how to bounce back.

Thornton scored a goal and added two assists to lead the Sharks to a 6-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

The Sharks, who were drubbed, 5-0, by Anaheim on Tuesday, improved to 6-1-0 after a loss and 16-7-0 overall. The Kings slipped to 7-12-4.

"It's all in the wins and losses," Thornton said. "We won tonight and that's all we can really explain. I don't know why we played average last night and today, we played better. It's just this sport."

"Our guys have made some mistakes because they're young and they're inexperienced," Los Angeles coach Marc Crawford said. "Were putting guys in positions that they are not ready for. They only way to find out if they are ready for them is to put them in those positions and you got to keep preservering."

Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Steve Bernier, Patrick Marleau, Marcel Goc and Joe Pavelsi also scored for San Jose, which has won seven of its last nine games. Vlasic's goal was the first of his career while Marleau's tally was his 200th.

"I was hoping I'd get to 200," Vlasic said. "I was stuck on 199 for a little while. It's always nice to get milestones, but it's even better with a win. It was a big game for us to bounce back after putting in a pretty poor performance in Anaheim. I think the guys came ready to play tonight."

Pavelski, who was inserted in the lineup to replace the injured Jonathan Cheechoo, scored in his first NHL game.

"I had some jitters at first," Pavelski said. "(I got) my legs going after sitting all day, but once that left, all the guys helped me out a lot and made me feel part of the team. There were a few jokes right away and then a few shift as soon as the game started.

"I had a chance right away but missed an open net six seconds in. I fumbled it and there went that chance, but it's just something that happens." Scott Thornton, Lubomir Visnovsky and Dustin Brown scored for the Kings, who fell to 3-5-2 in their last 10 games.

"I thought the difference in the game might have been early in the second period where they did get a lot traffic in front of our net, and got a lot of pucks in and around our net," Crawford said.

"(In) this league, you just don't know from night to night," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "Teams catch fire and their confidence rises. ... You have a couple of your veteran people have off nights and it can have a ripple effect right through your whole team. We've just got to find a way to regroup, settle our defense down and get them back playing the way they can."