In Pittsburgh, the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin‘s second goal of the game on Saturday tied their match with the visiting San Jose Sharks, 4-4, in the third period. 
Logan Couture responded for San Jose with a pair of goals in a 6-4 win for the Sharks.
Couture had five points in the win.
“It’s nice to see the puck going in,” Couture said. “Pucks just found the back of the net for us tonight. … We’ve lost a lot of heartbreakers this year, so it’s good to see one go our way.”
San Jose moved to 15-25-11.
Kaapo Kahkonen made 37 saves in the Sharks win.
San Jose took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal from Michael Eyssimont, Malkin tied it, 1-1, with his first of the night, off the power play.
Pittsburgh dropped to 24-16-9.
“It’s frustrating when we beat ourselves because we don’t manage the puck appropriately in the critical areas of the rink,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “When you look at some of the goals they scored tonight, it was a direct result of that.”
“There are 33 games left, every game is important,” Malkin said. “We want to play in the playoffs.”
Sidney Crosby added a second power play strike for a 2-1 lead in the first.
“We’ve got to be better,” Crosby said. “We’ve got to find a way to solve it. … Some nights, I think, maybe we’re forcing things. Other nights, we make a mental mistake. It’s not consistently the same thing. All those add up and end up in the back of our net. So we’ve got to solve it.”
Erik Karlsson tied it, 2-2, for the Sharks with seven seconds left in the opening period.
“A lot of back-and-forth,” San Jose’s Noah Gregor said. “We did a good job to stay in the game all night and get the lead late there, so it was a great win.”
Gregor put the Sharks in the lead, 3-2, in the middle frame.
Pittsburgh tied the 3-3 on a marker from Ryan Poehling in the late minutes of the second.
The Sharks, who had two goals in each period, reclaimed the lead, 4-3, on a strike from Alexander Barabanov , headed to the third.
“No one’s been kicked in the gut more than us this year,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “To dust ourselves off and come in here and show up the way we did tonight, I couldn’t be more proud of our group.”
Casey DeSmith made 26 saves in the Pens loss.
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