In San Jose, Melker Karlsson struck twice in the third period to help the Sharks defeat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks, 5-2.
The two teams had toyed with each other before the Sharks scored three times in the final frame.
“That’s a big win for us,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’re trying to close the gap on Calgary and we’re at home and we’ve been good at home all year. Our challenge is to win the games that we’re supposed to win at home.”
Martin Jones made 28 saves in the win.
Chicago got goals from Dylan Strome and Erik Gustafsson.
“We looked like a hockey team tonight, a huge difference from the night before,” Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. “The Sharks are a very good team and they weren’t going to give us anything for free. I think we had a couple of breakdowns that ended up in the back of the net. Over the 60 minutes, I can’t fault the effort or the level of intensity.
“We have a high capacity but haven’t had consistency. We have some young players still learning how to win at this level. Tough tonight to swallow a loss when you need the points.”
Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier and Marcus Sorensen also scored for the Sharks who climbed to within thee points of the idle Calgary Flames.
“We want to play with that playoff mindset, and that’s closing games in the third period, and don’t give them anything,” Meier said.
The Hawks dropped to 27-30-9.
“I think we are still in this thing,” Strome said of the playoff race. “We could win seven in a row pretty quickly. We have to string a couple of games in a row.”
[WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Sharks highlights]
Cam Ward made 29 saves in the loss.
“We have a third period like yesterday (outscored 2-0 in a 6-3 loss at the Kings), it’s good to turn it around,” Jonathan Toews said. “Even when you play your best against a good team like [the Sharks] are, it’s not a guarantee that you’re going to get a win. The effort has to be at playoff level, every shift has to be consistent in every period. We didn’t get the points we wanted on this road trip (1-2-0 in California). All three periods we had a ton of chances that didn’t go in.”
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