Jones continues to dominate Kings
Sharks’ goalie beats his former team for sixth time this season.
SAN JOSE — San Jose’s Martin Jones made 32 saves to stymie the Kings again, Patrick Marleau scored his 566th career goal and the Sharks recorded a 5-2 victory on Friday night.
Kevin Labanc, Rudolfs Balcers and Dylan Gambrell also scored, and Brent Burns had three assists to give San Jose its fifth win in six games. Tomas Hertl added an empty-net goal.
But the key to this victory was once again Jones. He beat the Kings for the sixth time this season and has a .933 save percentage in seven games against his former team. He joined Mike Vernon (1997-98 against the Ducks) as the only Sharks goalies to beat one team six times in a season.
Alex Iafallo and Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored for the Kings, and Cal Petersen made 24 saves. The Kings have lost seven of nine.
Marleau scored in backto-back games for the first time since November 2018 when Burns’ centering pass hit his skate and deflected past Petersen to make it 2-1 in the first. Marleau played his 1,762nd game, five shy of tying Gordie Howe’s all-time record.
That goal was part of a three-goal first period that Jones made stand up with a stellar second that included stops on breakaways by Iafallo and Trevor Moore.
Jones did give up a soft goal from a bad angle to Anderson-Dolan early in the third, but the Sharks held on for the win thanks to a shorthanded goal by Gambrell with three minutes remaining.
The Kings managed to score first for only the second time in seven meetings against San Jose this season when Iafallo was left alone in front to redirect a centering pass from Dustin Brown past Jones.
But that didn’t help the Kings solve their first-period woes as the Sharks scored three times in less than 10 minutes after killing a penalty.
Labanc scored on the rush, Marleau gave San Jose the lead and Balcers scored on a rebound after Timo Meier was stopped on a partial breakaway.
The Kings have been outscored by 18 goals in the opening period this season, second worst in the league.