Couture’s goal in double OT lifts Sharks past Knights in Game 2
San Jose rallies from Game 1 blowout to wear down Vegas
LAS VEGAS — Two days after opening the second round with their worst game of the playoffs, the San Jose Sharks responded with a gritty performance.
Logan Couture’s second goal of the game, on the power play at 5:13 of the second overtime, lifted the Sharks to a 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night, tying their National Hockey League Western Conference semifinal series at one game apiece.
Moments after Vegas’ Jon Merrill was called for hooking, Couture found the back of the net to give the Sharks their first win inside T Mobile Arena this season.
“I thought we were better everywhere,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said.
“We were tighter, our team game was better, we were better in every situation, and I knew we would be.”
San Jose rallied from two goals down in the second period to take the lead, before Vegas tied it in the third.
“We were down by two, but our game was good,” DeBoer said. “Like I said going in, as long as our game is good — even if we lost tonight — I think we’ve always taken the approach that if we play our game, at the end of the day good things happen. We stuck with it and even when they scored the second goal I really liked how we were playing.”
Vegas lost for the first time in the playoffs after winning their first five games by a 14-3 margin, including a 7-0 victory in Game 1.
The Golden Knights thought they won this one in the first overtime when Jonathan Marchessault’s backhand sailed past Martin Jones with 3:02 left, but officials ruled there was goaltender interference when Marchessault ran into Jones’ blocker and spun him around before his shot.
Brent Burns also scored two goals and Jones stopped 26 shots for San Jose, which was playing without suspended forward Evander Kane.
“We fixed some things and it was a better team game,” Burns said. “It’s just one game, obviously we had to win it, but it’s one game.”
William Karlsson scored twice for Vegas, while Nate Schmidt got his first of the post-season to tie the score at 3-3 with 6 1/2 minutes left in the third period. MarcAndre Fleury finished with 43 saves.
Game 3 is Monday night at San Jose.
“We competed harder all over the ice,” Couture said. “We were harder on pucks, we won more battles. I think when you’re creating offensive chances and you’re forcing other teams to play defensive hockey, that’s when penalties happen. They get tired and you wear them down.”
Unlike the first game of this series, Game 2 was much more physical, something that seemingly took Vegas out of its rhythm in the second period.
In Game 1, Vegas blocked 26 shots, to the Sharks’ 13, but San Jose held a 36-26 edge in Game 2. And after being whistled for 10 penalties in first series-opener, as opposed to Vegas’ five, the Golden Knights found themselves in the box more than San Jose, 11-6.
“I wasn’t too happy with a lot of it to be honest with you,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said.
“I think we had one penalty and they had seven, so I wasn’t too happy. They better be ready (for Game 3) because we didn’t show up for 45 minutes tonight . ... We played a great game the other night and competed and battled. Tonight, whether we thought it was going to be easy or what we thought I don’t know, but we didn’t show up to play our game.”