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SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Owen Nolan kept an impressive streak alive while Teemu Selanne ended a dubious one. Nolan extended his goal-scoring streak to five games and Selanne ended a 12-game drought as the San Jose Sharks posted a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings to complete a sweep of their home-and-home series. Already with five goals in his previous four contests, Nolan netted a power-play tally less than five minutes into the game to erase an early deficit. Goalless since December 30, Selanne gave the Sharks the lead midway through the first with his 21st goal. Patrick Marleau also scored for San Jose, which extended its winning streak to a season-high three games and improved to 3-0-0-1 against the Kings. "If you win two in a row, it's a winning streak as far as we are concerned. And three is kind of nice," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "We're starting to do things really well, getting great starts to the game." "We're feeding off each game," Nolan added. "Each game, the confidence is growing. We're really playing smart hockey right now. It's getting us wins. It's a matter of bearing down, guys coming together, and we're on a mission right now." Evgeni Nabokov turned aside 28 shots for his second win over Los Angeles in as many nights and third this season. "Nabby in the net has been really well, really good," Selanne said. "He knows exactly how much it takes, too. We get the good goaltending every night. He gives a chance to win." Bryan Smolinski netted the lone goal for the Kings, who fell to 4-14-0-1 in their last 19 contests, a span that includes four shutout losses and just one regulation win. "I don't know what to think," Kings left wing Craig Johnson said. "These were two big games that would get us right back into the race and we didn't come through. We have to regroup and we still have a lot of games to play, but we've got to get it going." "There was no comparison between the work ethic we showed tonight and what we showed last night," Los Angeles coach Andy Murray said. "Life works in strange ways. Sometimes there's a penance that you have to pay when you haven't done what you should have done. We didn't do what we should've done last night and there was a penance for it tonight." Looking to avenge Monday's 3-0 home loss to the Sharks, Los Angeles needed just 2:07 to solve Nabokov. One night after his four-game goal-scoring streak was snapped, Ziggy Palffy blasted a slap shot from the blue line that bounced off the San Jose goaltender and trickled toward the goal line. Before Nabokov could reach back and grab it, Smolinski jabbed it in for his 199th career goal. With Kings defenseman Dmitry Yushkevich in the penalty box for interference, Nolan drew San Jose even. From the doorstep, Mike Ricci fired a shot off the right goalpost. The puck bounced directly to the Sharks' captain, who slid it under Potvin from the right side at 4:43 for his 200th goal with San Jose. "When the whole team's playing well, there's more opportunities, and everything seems to be clicking right now," Nolan said. "The puck is following me and I'm trying to make the best of it." Selanne snapped the tie at 9:46, blasting a shot from the left faceoff circle over Potvin's right shoulder while on the power play for his first tally in 13 games. "We're playing really good hockey right now," Selanne said. "We're getting into Ron's system right now. We have learned a lot and I know we can get better, too. It's a good sign." Marleau gave the Sharks some breathing room less than four minutes later, moving within one tally of his third consecutive 20-goal season with a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Potvin to the far side. Jamie Storr replaced Potvin, who suffered a knee injury. "I made a save before the second goal and when I fell down, I felt a little tweak," Potvin said. "And I don't think it's anything very serious. We'll see tomorrow. I twisted it when I fell down. I kind of turned and I just felt a pop in there. I tried to stay in there. ... It didn't get any better, it got worse. I was battling it out." Newly acquired defenseman Kyle McLaren made his Sharks' debut, logging just over 13 minutes of ice time and engaging in a fight in his first game since last season's Eastern Conference quarterfinals with Boston. "He's aggressive and I think he's going to be a real fan favorite," Wilson said. "I think the way he plays, a sort of reckless abandon, might have been lacking here a little bit. And he's going to make it especially uncomfortable for a forward to stand in front of the net. I'm hoping that kind of play will rub off on all our other defensemen as well - and the rest of the team." Nabokov stopped all 22 shots over the final 40 minutes to preserve the victory. |
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