Sharks recover, defeat Ducks in shootout in first game in eight days

ANAHEIM --Evander Kane and Brent Burns each had a goal and an assist for the San Jose Sharks in a 5-4 shootout win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

Logan Couture and Matt Nieto scored for San Jose (4-5-0), which was playing its first game since Jan. 28. Martin Jones made 33 saves, including five in overtime, and stopped each of two attempts in the shootout.
"We just kind of took a couple bad penalties and we kind of shifted away from our game plan (in the second period)," Sharks forward Kevin Labanc said. "But in the third period, everybody came out and that was a good comeback victory for us. You're going to have games like that, and you've got to find a way, and we found a way to get two points here."

Max Comtois scored two goals, Troy Terry had a goal and an assist, and John Gibson made 26 saves for Anaheim (4-5-3), which scored more than three goals for the first time this season.
"Our practice habits with our offense are much better," Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. "I think the players are really grasping at what works and what doesn't. I thought we got that going fairly well in the second period and for a few shifts in the third."
Couture scored 39 seconds into the third period to cut the Anaheim lead to 3-2. He got to a loose puck in the crease and shot it over Gibson's left pad.
Kane then scored shorthanded to tie it 3-3 at 2:06, and Burns scored from the right face-off circle following a giveaway behind the net by Gibson to give the Sharks a 4-3 lead at 8:04.
"We got challenged between the second and third (periods) by the coaches," Couture said. "We challenged ourselves."
Comtois scored his second of the game to tie it 4-4 at 11:33 of the third. He then drew a high-sticking penalty on Sharks forward Ryan Donato in overtime.
"On the 4-on-3, we finally got the look that we wanted," Eakins said. "We never got it in the net, but you can't just have one look on the 4-on-3. You've got to be driving it down their throat.
"We can't be a team that hopes to win. We have to be a team that expects to win. When you have a 3-1 lead, you have to come out and expect to win and do the things that we have to do to nail that down. Some were on board and some were not tonight."
Donato and Labanc scored for San Jose in the shootout.

Nieto scored off a centering pass from Marcus Sorensen to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 12:50 of the first period.
Alexander Chmelevski, who is from Newport Beach, California, just south of Anaheim, got the secondary assist on the play in his NHL debut.
Adam Henrique pushed a rebound through the pads of Jones to tie it 1-1 at 10:03 of the second period.
Terry scored on a wrist shot from the slot to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead at 13:48, and Comtois scored off a pass from Rickard Rakell from behind the net to extend the lead to 3-1 lead at 18:22.
"In that second period, we've got to look at the way that we worked them down low, the way that we found a way to get those pucks to the net and get those scrappy goals," Comtois said. "Right now, we're not scoring a lot of goals, and I think that's one way to get back on track and get those goals coming for us."
NOTES:Sharks forward Patrick Marleau, who moved from the fourth to the second line, played his 1,732nd game, passing Ron Francis for fourth place in NHL history. ... Anaheim forward Ryan Getzlaf was a late scratch because of a lower-body injury. ... Ducks forward Derek Grant had two assists in his return after missing the previous three games with an upper-body injury.