Photo credit: @NBCSSharks
By Jerry Feitelberg
The San Jose Sharks extended their win-streak to three games Monday night, beating the rival Los Angeles Kings 3-1 at the SAP Center. Erik Karlsson collected his 33rd, 34th and 35th assists to put his streak at 13-games with a helper, becoming the sixth defenseman in league history to do so.
Tomas Hertl scored his 15th goal of the season, Joonas Donskoi stayed hot with his 11th of the year and Joe Thornton pitched in with an empty-net power play strike. Martin Jones made 22 saves and picked up his first assist as a San Jose Shark in the victory. Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings.
Donskoi picked up his seventh point in six games, beating Kings goalie Jack Campbell on a rebound off an Evander Kane shot with 2:17 left in the first period. Karlsson picked up the secondary assist, his first of three assists on the night.
Anze Kopitar tied the game 3:42 into the period after redirecting a Dustin Brown pass behind Jones to tie the game. Ilya Kovalchuk also assisted on the then-tying goal.
Tomas Hertl broke the tie at the 9:09 mark after Martin Jones fed Karlsson behind the Sharks net to start the rush. Karlsson snapped the puck from just inside the San Jose blue line to Hertl as he entered the Kings zone two zones away. Hertl buried the back-hander to put San Jose up 2-1. Joe Thornton would add his seventh goal of the year with 21 seconds left in play, reeling in Karlsson’s clearing pass to put the puck in the empty net. The freebie goal came with the Sharks on the power play, finishing the night 1 for 3.
The Sharks face the Edmonton Oilers in the second game of a back-to-back Tuesday night at 7:30 pm. Aaron Dell is expected to start.
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