NHL Update: San Jose Sharks beat Phoenix Coyotes, 4-2
Logan Couture lit the lamp with the game-winning goal in the middle stanza, as San Jose Sharks doubled up Phoenix Coyotes, 4-2, on Monday.
Dany Heatley and Joe Thornton each netted a goal and one helper for San Jose, which has won two straight games to erase a six-game slide.
"Pucks are starting to go in the net," Heatley said. "I think we're playing better as a team. We did a lot of real good things tonight."
Patrick Marleau celebrated his 1,000th career play-off, all for Sharks, with a goal while Antti Niemi turned aside 34 shots to pick up the win.
“It goes by quick,” Marleau said. “But it happens and then you start thinking about all the people that have helped you along the way, all the support, all the players you’ve played with.”
Derek Morris and Oliver Ekman-Larsson found the net for Phoenix, whose four-game win streak has been halted by Sharks. Ilya Bryzgalov surrendered three goals on 35 shots in losing effort.
"We had some opportunities. I didn't think we were sharp around the net," said Phoenix head coach Dave Tippett.
Marleau got San Jose on the board with the game's first goal in the fourth minute of the opening period. He snapped a quick shot from a sharp angle from the bottom of left circle. His shot
bounced off the skate of Bryzgalov and slipped in on the far side.
Coyotes pulled even at 1-1 in the 13th minute of the first period. It happened so when a slap shot by Morris from the right point changed direction in the slot off the skate of Sharks’ Kent
Huskins and veered into the net.
After a Phoenix turnover in its zone, Couture fed the disc to Heatley on a breakaway. Heatley deked one way and then chipped the puck easily past Coyotes goalie into the left corner of the
net, to make it 2-1 game just four minutes into the middle session.
Couture gave Sharks a two-goal advantage 3-1 with 2 ½ minutes to play in the second period. The goal came when Coyotes’ Davis Schlemko was in the penalty box for cross-checking. Heatley passed
the puck from behind the net to Dan Boyle, who slipped a perfect pass to Couture in front of the net. Couture redirected it past Bryzgalov.
Coyotes crept within another goal to make it 3-2 game with eight minutes remaining in the second period. This time, Ekman-Larsson snatched his first NHL goal when he fired a straight shot
home from the left circle.
Sharks regained two-goal edge with 49 seconds left in the middle period, as Thornton knocked the puck into empty net to account for the final scoring 4-2 and sealed the win.
“It wasn’t always the way we drew it up,” San Jose coach Todd McLellan said. “The goaltender had to be very good but at the end of the night, it was the difference.”
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