Marleau scores twice in return to Sharks, win against Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Patrick Marleau scored twice in his first game back with the San Jose Sharks to help them avoid the worst start in their history with a 5-4 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Thursday.

"Just to be able to contribute like that, you feel good," Marleau said. "But I would've taken the two points over anything. It was just so exciting to be back and playing and being with this bunch of guys."
Marleau scored on the power play with 17 seconds remaining in the first period to tie the game 2-2 and at 17:46 of the second to tie it 4-4.
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Barclay Goodrow gave the Sharks a 5-4 lead at 4:47 of the third off a pass from Joe Thornton from behind the net. It was the first time the Sharks had a lead in a game this season.
"It was a huge play to get that game-winner, back in his office making plays, so it was good," Marleau said of Thornton's pass.
Marleau, who signed a one-year contract Wednesday, played his first regular-season game with San Jose since April 8, 2017, following two seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Brent Burns scored his 200th NHL goal and had an assist, and Aaron Dell made 26 saves for San Jose (1-4-0), which also started the 1993-94 season 0-4-0.

"I don't even know if that counts," Burns said of his goal, which deflected in off defenseman Connor Murphy. "In a week, it'll be a one-timer, top corner. Hopefully, my son's sleeping and he didn't see it, and I can tell him a good story."
Andrew Shaw scored two goals, Dominik Kubalik scored his first NHL goal, and Corey Crawford made 29 saves for Chicago (0-2-0), which lost its home opener.
"We don't look at personal stats," Shaw said. "Two points for the team would have been way better than any individual stat. We just don't think we played a full 60. We took some shifts off and it ended up in the back of our net a few times. They're little mistakes that can be fixed, so we have to learn from it, move on, and get ready for the next one."

The Blackhawks played their first game since a 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2019 NHL Global Series in Prague, Czech Republic, on Oct. 4.
Kubalik gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 5:07 of the first period, shooting from the bottom of the right face-off circle off a cross-crease pass from Brandon Saad.
"I never really thought about it, how I'm going to score like that, but really happy that it went in the net today, obviously," Kubalik said. "It's always a thing that you're going to remember for probably the rest of your life, so I'm really happy, but my feelings are on both sides because in the end, we didn't get the two points."

Kevin Labanc tied the game 1-1 on the power play at 11:30, scoring from the goal line off the rebound of an Evander Kane shot.
Shaw gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead at 13:22, backhanding his own rebound from in front, and made it 3-2 at 9:27 of the second period, scoring glove side from the high slot.
Burns tied it 3-3 at 10:00 before Dylan Strome gave the Blackhawks a 4-3 lead at 12:14, scoring from the right circle off a give-and-go with Patrick Kane.
"Obviously, he's a skilled player," Strome said of Kane. "So we know when we're out there with him, each player brings something to the table. So obviously on the 2-on-1, I'm stopping and looking for him for a good reason, he's going to get it back to me. You have to look for him when you're on the ice with him, and he's fun to play with."

They said it

"Just good momentum changers for us. He's a goal-scorer. That's what he does. Getting a 500-goal scorer five games into the year was huge for us. It was the boost we needed tonight." -- Sharks center Joe Thornton on Patrick Marleau's goals

"Would have liked us to respond a little better to the adversity that we faced because we're going to face a lot this year. So that's a bit of a message to the team. We got to do things we talk about for 60 [minutes] and then we're a good enough team. We have good enough players." -- Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton

Need to know

Marleau played his 789th consecutive game, the second-longest active streak behind Florida Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle (800) and the sixth longest in NHL history. Doug Jarvis played an NHL-record 964 consecutive games. Marleau is the Sharks leader in games (1,494), goals (510) and points (1,084). … Patrick Kane has four points (one goal, three assists) in the first two games.

What's next

Sharks:Host the Calgary Flames on Sunday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN1, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)