Flyers Lose To Sharks 4-2
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A goal shot in off a faceoff and another following a costly turnover put the San Jose Sharks in another hole at home. This time, they found a way to climb out of it.
Brent Burns atoned for his giveaway by scoring the game-tying goal and Joe Pavelski added two more goals in the third period to help the Sharks snap a four-game home losing streak by beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on Wednesday night.
"In the past few games a bounce kind of buried us at times," Pavelski said. "Tonight we had that feeling that it wasn't going to hold us down. We got a big power-play goal by Burnzie to get us back in there and we felt like we had it."
Burns tied the game with a power-play goal less than 2 minutes after he gave Philadelphia the lead and Pavelski scored the tiebreaker just after a power play with 6:15 left.
Pavelski added another power-play goal in the final minute and Joe Thornton also scored on the man advantage for the Sharks, who entered with the worst home record in the league at 4-10.
"We've been playing good we just haven't been winning at home," Thornton said. "It's nice to finally see all this hard work paying off at home.
Martin Jones made 17 saves.
Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux scored for the Flyers. Philadelphia has one win in its past 19 meetings against San Jose.
Steve Mason got the late nod to start in goal in place of the sick Michal Neuvirth. He made 29 saves but allowed three power-play goals and a fourth that came three seconds after a penalty ended.
"The PK didn't do the job tonight," Mason said. "It cost us the game. For the most part this season it's kind of struggled. The goalie is part of the PK and I have to come up with some big saves on the PK."
The game got chippy at times with one fight, a few other scuffles and a hard hit by Burns on Chris VandeVelde during a third-period power play for San Jose. The Flyers took exception to the hit and VandeVelde had to be helped to the dressing room. Coach Dave Hakstol thought there should have been a penalty on the play.
"In my opinion he made contact with a hit to the head," he said.
Then just as Shayne Gostisbehere came out of the penalty box, Pavelski knocked in a one-timer off a cross-ice feed from Justin Braun to give the Sharks the lead.
Burns helped give the Flyers the lead with a turnover and then tied it with a power-play goal in the opening minutes of the third period. The giveaway came near the offensive blue line, sending the Flyerson a 2-on-0 breakaway that Couturier turned into a goal.
But after R.J. Umberger was called for slashing in the offensive zone, Burns converted at the other end on a nice feed to the slot from Logan Couture.
Couture had two assists in just his fifth full game of the season for the Sharks. Couture missed eight weeks with a broken right leg and then got hurt again in his second game back and underwent emergency surgery Dec. 10 to repair a bleeding artery in his right thigh.
Couture also got an assist on San Jose's first goal when Thornton beat Mason high from the side of the net on a power play midway through the second period with Nick Schultz in the box for hooking. That extended Thornton's point streak to seven games.
But the Flyers tied it late in the period with an unusual goal. Giroux was taking a faceoff against Thornton in the circle to the left of Jones and whacked the puck instead of trying to win it back to a teammate. The puck hit an unsuspecting Jones in the chest, fell to the ice and trickled into the net for the equalizer.
NOTES: The team that has scored first has won the past 21 games at the Shark Tank. ... Flyers D Mark Streit returned to the lineup after missing 19 games with a groin injury. ... Philadelphia D Michael Del Zotto sat out with an injured left wrist.
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