Goodrow’s tiebreaker finishes homestand with win
Looking for chemistry and contributions from different line combinations, the Sharks finally got what they were seeking from at least one group Tuesday night at SAP Center.
Barclay Goodrow’s redirected goal snapped a tie late and enabled San Jose to beat the Wild 4-3 on the strength of his line’s three tallies.
Opposite winger Marcus Sorensen enjoyed a three-point game with a goal and two assist and the ageless Joe Thornton slipped in between the two bottom-six forwards to make it all work for at least one night.
“Jumbo’s Jumbo. He’s a worldclass player,” Goodrow said. “He’s going to find you where ever you are. He’s one of the best players ever. We’ve kind of joked about playing together a while. It was nice to play together and score a couple of goals.”
Goodrow scored his second goal of the season when he got a piece of defenseman Brent Burns’ sweeping shot from the left point at 7:25. “He put himself in a good position in front of the goal and it was a nice bounce, obviously nice to see it go in,” Burns said of Goodrow.
And with two assists, Burns has scored 18 points in his past 12 games to assume the team lead in scoring.
“The puck ended up with Burnzie at the point,” Goodrow started, “and when that happens, just head to the net. The puck’s going to go there. I just was able to get a stick on it, and it went in.”
Minnesota, which lost for only the second time in nine games, got two screen goals from defensemen during the opening 3:27 of the third period to tie the game 3-3.
San Jose doubled its lead 5:36 into the second period when Thornton redirected a Sorensen blast past Devan Dubnyk. Thornton’s second goal in two games leaves him one short of 400 for his career.
After Zach Parise scored a power-play goal, the Sharks tacked on an important third goal at 17:08. Defenseman Brenden Dillon made a long breakout pass as he exited from behind the San Jose goal to Sorensen along the left boards. Sorensen fed Antti Suomela perfectly just as the rookie hit the Minnesota blue line, and he finished the sequence by lifting a backhander past Dubnyk.
“Depth won us a game tonight,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “Their big line and our big line were going out together. It was going to come down to depth play to decide it.”