Coyotes lose ground in West playoff race with loss to Sharks

The Arizona Coyotes dropped to fifth place in the Honda West Division with a 6-4 loss to the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center in San Jose on Monday.

The Sharks scored the first four goals of the game.
Jakob Chychrun scored two goals in the third period and had an assist, and Michael Bunting had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes (21-23-5), who have lost eight of their past 10 games. Adin Hill made 21 saves after replacing Darcy Kuemper, who allowed four goals on 11 shots.
"When you're chasing the whole game, it's tough to get back in it," Bunting said. "We had some great fight and we came close a couple of times, but this one is going to sting."
Evander Kane had a goal and three assists, and Alexander Barabanov scored his first NHL goal for the Sharks (19-24-5), who won for the first time in nine games. Josef Korenar made 21 saves for his first NHL win in his third start.
"It's easy to get frustrated when you've been losing games and the other team chips away -- there weren't some great goals, and we know it -- but we tried to stay positive and push through it," Sharks coach Bob Boughner said.

The teams will play again in San Jose on Wednesday.
Arizona is fifth in the eight-team West, one point behind the St. Louis Blues, who defeated the Colorado Avalanche on Monday. San Jose trails St. Louis by five points but has played two more games. The top four teams will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Noah Gregor scored unassisted from below the goal line 17 seconds into the game to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead.
Brent Burns scored his second goal in 27 games with a shot from the point to make it 2-0 at 3:07.
Logan Couture kicked a rebound to his stick and scored to make it 3-0 at 1:54 of the second period. It was his second straight game with a goal after a 16-game drought.
"We gave them two or three goals as a gift, and that's hard to come back from," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "You make a late rally, but we shouldn't have had to. We shouldn't have given them those goals to start the game."
Erik Karlsson scored from the blue line on a shot that deflected off defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson to make it 4-0 at 3:19. Hill replaced Kuemper after the goal.
"The game's 4-0, and it was a lot closer than it should have been after that, and I say that with all respect to the other team," Boughner said. "There's a couple of goals we'd like to have back, but we didn't let them rattle us."

Bunting scored his eighth goal in 14 games this season to cut it to 4-1 at 4:43.
Clayton Keller drove to the net and scored on Nick Schmaltz's pass from the right face-off circle to make it 4-2 at 10:05.
The first of Chychrun's two goals cut it to 4-3 at 2:02 of the third.
"Guys were positive and guys believed that we could come back," Bunting said, referring to Arizona's five wins after trailing by multiple goals. "It was a good vibe."
Barabanov scored at 11:17 to make it 5-3. It was the 26-year-old forward's Sharks debut after playing 13 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season, his first in North America after seven seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League. He was acquired in a trade April 12.
"He played a real smart game, he's got high-end skill, and he's patient with his puck," Boughner said. "You can tell he's dangerous in the offensive zone, and he looks like a confident player."

Chychrun scored his 16th goal, the most among NHL defensemen, at 15:16 to make it 5-4.
"We stuck with it and got ourselves back and gave ourselves a chance to tie it up at the end," Chychrun said. "It's not the time to be negative and on a downer. It's crunch time, and we need to stick with it."
Kane scored into an empty net with nine seconds left for the 6-4 final.
"They tried to push in the end and they almost made it, so I'm glad we won at the end, we scored that empty-netter," Korenar said.
NOTES: Timo Meier got his 100th NHL assist on Couture's goal. … Karlsson had two points (one goal, one assist) in his previous eight games. … The Sharks were 0-for-4 on the power play and are 0-for-20 in their past eight games. … Arizona is 3-1-1 against San Jose this season. … Coyotes forward Phil Kessel's five-game goal streak against the Sharks ended. He scored seven goals in the first four games against them this season and two in the final game last season.