Sharks comeback from two down, but lose in OT

The San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings went back and forth in a high-scoring game. The teams exchanged leads and chances throughout the night. Dustin Brown would score the OT winner unassisted just 1:16 into the extra period to give the Kings a 5-4 win. The Sharks have now dropped 4 of 5.

Brown carried the puck into the zone, then spun around and shot the puck past Evgeni Nabokov. Nabokov is probably going through devaju as the goal was almost a mirror image of the goal Carlo Colaiacovo scored a few games ago to tie a game late that the Sharks eventually lost.

Tonight was not one of Nabokov’s best games. Brown’s goal should have been stopped as there was no traffic and he was in a fairly harmless shooting position. Even so, the puck easily beat Nabokov five-hole. Nabby made 23 saves on 28 shots.

The Sharks probably could have had the game-winning goal in regulation on a controversial call that ruled off a Patrick Marleau goal because of the “intent to blow the whistle” rule. This is one of the worst, if not the worst rule in the game. The puck clearly crossed the line a few seconds before the whistle; it was sitting in the crease with players hacking away at it and then the puck gets poked in by Marleau and after some hesitation is waived off.

The game started with a power play goal by Teddy Purcell. Purcell skated to the right of the faceoff circle and ripped a shot off the post and into the net. The penalty kill had an off night as well for the Sharks, surrendering two power play goals tonight.

Joe Pavelski would tie the game on a two on one with Kent Huskins. Pavelski snapped the puck top shelf over Erik Ersberg’s glove.

Patrick Marleau tied Owen Nolan’s team record for fastest to 20 goals, when he got to a puck sitting in the crease before three Kings defenders on the powerplay. The tally came in 32nd game of the season. This is Marleau’s ninth season with 20 goals. The goal came with 37 seconds left in the first period.

The second period has been the Sharks’ best period this season but this one was one of their worst. The Kings would score three unanswered goals to go up 4-2 before the halfway point in the game. Jarret Stoll, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty would all put the puck past Nabokov within a span of seven minutes. All the goals were scored on crisp entries into the zone and a fluid attack crashing the net.

Dan Boyle would bring the Sharks within one a little past halfway in the period when he came in 2-on-1 with Marleau and beat Ersberg five-hole.

The Sharks would get numerous powerplay opportunities to tie the game in the rest of the second and into the third but their struggles at home on the man advantage continued. The team was running at a measley 11.8 percent coming into the game, good for second last in the NHL. Oddly enough their road percentage is tops in the league at 29.2 percent.

With 7:41 left to play in the third, Marc-Edouard Vlasic would quickly got the puck up to Manny Malhotra who carried the puck into the zone and zipped a wrist shot into the net from just inside the blue line.

Joe Thornton and Ryane Clowe each had two assists. Thornton increased his league leading assists to 35 and point total to 42 on the season.

The Sharks will have to right the ship quickly because the Dallas Stars come to town on Friday for another division showdown.

Prediction:

Clowe has been on fire lately, scoring points now in 10 straight. He’ll continue to put up numbers against the Stars by chipping in a goal and an assist.