Burns’ sizzling goal delivers Sharks’ win against Wild

Brent Burns took matters into his own hands Sunday night to give the San Jose Sharks their biggest win of the young season.

Burns scored a dazzling goal with 1:48 left in the third period and Matt Nieto added an empty net goal with 28.7 seconds remaining to help give the Sharks a thrilling 5-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night.

After a faceoff win by Tomas Hertl, Burns took control of the puck, stick-handled toward the middle of the ice and roofed a shot past Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen for his second goal of the season.

Ryan Donato had a goal and as assist against his former team and Martin Jones had 26 saves as

the Sharks split the twogame series with the Wild and evened their record this season at 3-3-0.

Evander Kane and Noah Gregor both scored in the second period for the Sharks, with Kane’s power play goal at the 6:39 mark of the second period breaking an 0-for-12 skid San Jose had been on with the man advantage.

Gregor’s goal, his first of the season, came with 11:34 left in the second period.

Zach Parise, Nick Bjugstad and Kevin Fiala scored for the Wild (4-2-0), which had been off to its best start after five games since going 4-0-1 in 2008-09.

The Sharks’ season long eight-game road trip ends this week as they travel to Denver to face the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday and Thursday. They then fly to Phoenix to play two games as the home team against the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 1 and 3. Saturday, the Sharks announced they would have relocate those games from SAP Center to Gila River Arena because of Santa Clara County’s ongoing contact sports ban.

Donato, who played 84 games for the Wild from 2018-2020 before he was traded to the Sharks, in October, scored at the 19:02 mark of the first period to tie the game 1-1.

Jones came into Sunday with a 2-1-0 record and an .893 save percentage. On Wednesday, Jones stopped 22 of 23 shots in a 2-1 Sharks shootout win over the St. Louis Blues.

In his last five starts against the Wild over the last two seasons, Jones had a 5-0-0 record, a .943 save percentage and a 1.60 goals against average.

The two teams were tied 1-1 after the first period as Donato scored his second of the season at the 19:02 mark of the first period.

Erik Karlsson faked a shot toward the goal and found Kevin Labanc with a sharp pass in to Labanc the corner to the left of Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen. Labanc then fed Donato with a short backhand pass, and Donato put a shot on goal that deflected off Jared Spurgeon’s leg and between the pads of Kahkonen.

The Wild were outshot 12-3 by the Sharks in the first period, but their first shot found its way past Jones at the 4:21 mark as Parise scored in his second straight game.