Sharks survive late charge by Canucks
SAN JOSE 3 VANCOUVER 1
SAN JOSE, California — Kevin Labanc and Joel Ward scored in the first 30 seconds for the quickest two goals in franchise history, and the San Jose Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 Tuesday night.
Chris Tierney also scored for the playoff-bound Sharks, who won for just the third time in 11 games. Martin Jones stopped 33 shots for his 35th win — seventh in the NHL.
Christopher Tanev scored for the Canucks, who lost their fifth straight and for the second straight time against the Sharks. Richard Bachman finished with 22 saves in his fourth start.
The Sharks completed a sweep of the teams’ five-game season series.
Capitals 4, Leafs 1
TORONTO — The Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs had both won seven of their last eight games heading into Tuesday’s meeting.
But it was the league-leading Caps who showed their class on the night, cruising to a comfortable 4-1 win.
Toronto had the disadvantage of having played in Buffalo the night before (a 4-2 win) while Washington last played Sunday.
“I don’t want to make any excuses for anything. I would have liked obviously [to have] played them tomorrow and then have a measuring stick,” said Toronto coach Mike Babcock, asked if the night was a measuring stick for his young team.
“To me we didn’t measure anything. We didn’t find out how good they were because we didn’t push them at all. So to me it was a onesided game. They were better than us from start to finish. We had eight minutes or something at the start of the second [period] but other than that they were bigger, stronger, faster, quicker, more organized — better.”
Lars Eller, Kevin Shattenkirk, Nate Schmidt and Tom Wilson scored for the Capitals, ending Toronto’s four-game win streak.
Mitch Marner, with his 19th of the season, added a power-play goal with 68 seconds left to deny Philipp Grubauer his fourth career shutout.
Washington outshot Toronto 38-28.
“We need to be sharper and play better,” said Leafs forward Leo Komarov. “We saw how they play. We’re still a bit far away from that.”
The Capitals (53-18-8) could have clinched the Metropolitan Division, Eastern Conference and Presidents’ Trophy on the night. But in addition to beating Toronto, they needed a Columbus win over Pittsburgh and the Penguins — with a 4-1 victory — weren’t co-operating.
“I thought we came out and played with purpose,” said Washington coach Barry Trotz.
“The only disappointment I had is we took a late penalty and [Grubauer] didn’t get the shutout,” he added. “A real good effort for us against a really good team.
“We benefited from them playing last night. Them and Buffalo have a pretty good rivalry and those games are pretty intense.”
The Bruins beat Tampa Bay 4-0 to clinch a playoff spot. Toronto (39-25-15) would have joined them with a win.
Kings 6, Oilers 4
LOS ANGELES — Trevor Lewis and Tanner Pearson scored about 81⁄ minutes apart in the third period, Jonathan Quick made 23 saves and the Los Angeles Kings beat Edmonton 6-4 on Tuesday night to end the Oilers’ five-game winning streak.
Nick Shore, Dustin Brown, Nic Dowd and Drew Doughty also scored for Los Angeles in its first game since being eliminated from the playoff race. The Kings beat a playoff-bound opponent for only the second time in their last seven contests.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice, Milan Lucic had a powerplay goal and Darnell Nurse also tallied for the Oilers, who lost for the second time in 11 games.
Cam Talbot made 20 saves for Edmonton, which is tied with San Jose for second place in the Pacific Division with three games remaining.