Couture gives Sharks OT victory against Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- Logan Couture scored with 1:40 remaining in overtime to give the San Jose Sharks a 2-1 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

Couture started a breakaway after Sharks goalie Aaron Dell saved Cody Glass' shot attempt with the left pad and received a pass from defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Couture's initial shot was saved by Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, but Couture tapped in the rebound.
"Good save by Dell]," Couture said. "[Vlasic] made a great play just bumping it up, had a breakaway, spent two seconds trying to settle the puck down and couldn't get it settled. Shot it and was able to bang home the rebound that sat there."
***[WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Golden Knights highlights]*
Timo Meier scored, and Dell made 37 saves for the Sharks (11-11-1), who won for the seventh time in eight games after a five-game losing streak.
It was Dell's first start since Nov. 2 (5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks) and his first win since Oct. 24, 4-2 at the Montreal Canadiens.
"I felt pretty in control," Dell said. "All the practice I had leading up to this, I had some time to hone some things in and I think it showed tonight."

San Jose played without forward Tomas Hertl (undisclosed injury). Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said it wasn't serious but did not provide any other update.
"It was a great character win," Dell said. "I think we really showed that it doesn't matter who's in and who's out, that we can get the job done."
Brayden McNabb scored for the Golden Knights (11-9-4), who are on a three-game point streak after going 0-4-1 in their previous five. Fleury made 27 saves.
"We played pretty good," Fleury said. "We're at home. We're playing against them, too, so we always want to beat them, but at least we battled back to get that point."

The Golden Knights, who were 4-for-10 on the power play in the past four games, went 0-for-3 against the Sharks' League-leading penalty-killing unit (90.2 percent).
"We were a little too much on the outside there," Golden Knights forward Paul Stastny said. "When you're scoring sometimes and you get comfortable, you try to get cute. When we're successful on the power play, we're playing downhill. We get the puck, attack with it, put shots on net. They did a good job taking the lanes away, and that's what we're trying to find."
Meier scored with a backhand at 1:26 of the second period to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead.
McNabb tied it 1-1 at 9:42 of the third period on a wrist shot from outside the left circle. It was his first goal in 22 games.
The Golden Knights outshot the Sharks 28-17 through two periods but were outshot 12-10 in the third period and overtime.
"We wanted to be better," Couture said. "We didn't have a good effort [against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, a 5-2 loss]. We weren't hard enough. We weren't ourselves. Tonight we played a little bit more like our game."

They said it

"Two hard teams playing ever since Vegas got in the League. It's fun to play. We're going to see them a lot in the playoffs moving forward. You're going to have to go through each other to get to where you want to go, and I think that sparks things. It's just all in the greater fun. I think it's good for the game, I think it's good for the League. It's most fun for us because we get to be a part of it." -- Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson
"I feel good. Even the games we were losing, we weren't playing that bad. I feel good about our team. Would I like to be higher in the standings? Of course. It's been a battle, it's been a grind, and we've been playing good hockey. I can't say anything when we lose a game like tonight. We could've probably won the game, should've won the game, but that just didn't happen tonight." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant

Need to know

It was San Jose's first victory against Vegas this season. The Golden Knights won the first two games (4-1 on Oct. 2, 5-1 on Oct. 4). … It was Dell's first victory against Vegas (1-2-1). … Couture has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in his past seven games. … Sharks forward Melker Karlsson left at 2:03 of the third period with an upper-body injury. … San Jose defenseman Radim Simek (lower body) left at 3:07 of the third period. ... Sharks forward Antti Suomela had an assist in his season debut. … The Golden Knights are 0-4 in games decided in overtime. … Vegas forwards Max Pacioretty (three games) and Jonathan Marchessault (six games) each had their respective point streaks end.

What's next

Sharks:Host the New York Islanders on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Golden Knights: Host the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN360, SN1, CITY, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)