Meier scores five in Sharks win over Kings

In San Jose, the Sharks’ Timo Meier scored five goals on Monday in a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Meier is the first player in Sharks history to hit for five.

Tomas Hertl (48) collides with Kings’ goalie Jonathan Quick – Photo by Jack Lima

“Honestly, I don’t even remember (the last time scoring five goals),” Meier said. “It probably was somewhere in junior in the Swiss League somewhere. It was special.

“It’s a pretty cool feeling. But at the same time, you don’t want to get too high. We get a day off tomorrow and then it’s back to work. It definitely gives you a lot of confidence, but you want to go back and work hard.”

James Reimer made 39 saves in the win.

“It’s always nice when you see guys have accomplishments like that,” San Jose’s Erik Karlsson said of Meier. “It raises the spirits for the whole team. … He finds open areas out there and he has been doing that on a consistent level this year, which I think has come with the experience that he’s had.”

San Jose improved to the Sharks 21-17-2.

“I can’t remember ever seeing a guy that hot,” Sharks head coach Bob Boughner said. “You put in the good, hard work and you get paid back, and Timo got paid back today. The way he scored, the patience, picking the shot. Those were pretty goals.”

Anze Kopitar and Mikey Anderson scored for LA.

“It happened very quickly,” Kopitar said. “We didn’t play terribly, but nowhere near good enough. Sometimes, when you don’t play terrible and get away with it, maybe a 2-1 game, 3-1 game, it doesn’t look as bad as it does at 6-2.”

The Kings fell to 20-14-5.

“Nothing is easy in this game, whether you’re fixing or moving forward,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “So no, it’s not an easy fix, but it’s addressable. We can be better in those areas, for sure.”

Rudolfs Balcers added a single marker for the Sharks in the opening frame to make the score 2-0 at the time.

Jonathan Quick made 11 saves in the LA loss.

“You could probably summarize this game by looking at the game sheet,” McLellan said. “You’d look at the shots on goal and go, ‘that shouldn’t be like that. But it should be, because one team played on the inside, in and around our paint, and we didn’t get inside at the other end.”
Photos by Jack.Lima@prohockeynews.com