Sharks pull away from Blackhawks in third, gain in Pacific

SAN JOSE -- The San Jose Sharks moved to within three points of first place in the Pacific Division with a 5-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at SAP Center on Sunday.

Melker Karlsson scored two goals, and Martin Jones made 28 saves for the Sharks (39-19-8), who trail the Calgary Flames for first in the division and lead the third-place Vegas Golden Knights by nine points.
Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier and Marcus Sorensen scored, and Joonas Donskoi, Micheal Haley and Tim Heed each had two assists for San Jose, which is 21-5-5 at home and will play 10 of its final 16 games at SAP Center.
"That's a big win for us," coach Peter DeBoer said. "We're trying to close the gap on Calgary and we're at home and we've been good at home all year. Our challenge is to win the games that we're supposed to win at home."
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Sharks highlights]
Dylan Strome and Erik Gustafsson scored for the Blackhawks (27-30-9), who have lost four of their past five games and are eight points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Cam Ward made 29 saves.
Chicago was coming off a 6-3 loss at the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
"We looked like a hockey team tonight, a huge difference from the night before," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "The Sharks are a very good team and they weren't going to give us anything for free. I think we had a couple of breakdowns that ended up in the back of the net. Over the 60 minutes, I can't fault the effort or the level of intensity.
"We have a high capacity but haven't had consistency. We have some young players still learning how to win at this level. Tough tonight to swallow a loss when you need the points."

The game was tied 2-2 entering the third period.
Sorensen gave San Jose a 3-2 lead at 4:27 with his third goal in two games. He took a pass in the slot from Joe Thornton and scored with a snap shot.
Karlsson redirected a Brent Burns shot on a delayed penalty for his 10th goal to make it 4-2 at 8:15. He scored his second of the night into an empty net with 2:22 remaining for the 5-2 final.
"We want to play with that playoff mindset, and that's closing games in the third period, and don't give them anything," Meier said.
Hertl scored to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 12:16 of the first period. He took a long pass from Heed, skated past Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith, and scored with a wrist shot from below the left face-off circle through the five-hole.

Strome took a cross-ice pass from Alex DeBrincat and scored on a 2-on-1 rush to tie it 1-1 at 19:32.
"I think we are still in this thing," Strome said of the playoff race. "We could win seven in a row pretty quickly. We have to string a couple of games in a row."
Meier gave San Jose a 2-1 lead at 1:38 of the second period when he redirected Heed's shot from the right wall.
Gustafsson scored with a wrist shot from the high slot to tie it 2-2 at 6:40.
In the third period, San Jose's fourth line combined for five points; Karlsson scored two goals, Haley had two assists, and Barclay Goodrow had an assist.
"You hope they can build on that and that becomes a nightly event," DeBoer said.

They said it

"We have a third period like yesterday (outscored 2-0 in a 6-3 loss at the Kings), it's good to turn it around. Even when you play your best against a good team like [the Sharks] are, it's not a guarantee that you're going to get a win. The effort has to be at playoff level, every shift has to be consistent in every period. We didn't get the points we wanted on this road trip (1-2-0 in California). All three periods we had a ton of chances that didn't go in." -- Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews
"We definitely got better as the game went on. Our third (period) was the best, which is encouraging because 2-2, we're going to be in that position quite a bit, I think, moving forward, and guys came out and played really well." -- Sharks captain Joe Pavelski

Need to know

Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, whose 94 points (40 goals, 54 assists) are second in the NHL behind Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov's 106, went without a point for the third time in the past four games. … Sharks center Joe Thornton played his 1,550th game, tying Alex Delvecchio for 14th in NHL history. … Burns, who has the flu, played his 455th consecutive NHL game. … San Jose played without injured defenseman Erik Karlsson (groin) and forward Evander Kane (undisclosed) for the second straight game. Karlsson has missed 12 of the past 17 games.

What's next

Blackhawks: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, MSG-B, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)