Sharks end skid with win over Arizona

In San Jose, the Coyotes found a way to lose ground in the playoff race in the West division.

On Monday night, the Sharks defeated the Coyotes, 6-4, to end an eight-game schneid.

For the Coyotes, the lose dropped them one point back of the St Louis Blues who defeated the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.

Josef Korenar made 21 saves in the San Jose win.

“It’s easy to get frustrated when you’ve been losing games and the other team chips away — there weren’t some great goals, and we know it — but we tried to stay positive and push through it,” Sharks head coach Bob Boughner said.

The game was barely three minutes old when the Sharks had a 2-0 lead off goals from Noah Gregor  and Brent Burns.

Logan Couture and Erik Karlsson  made it 4-0 early in the middle frame.

“The game’s 4-0, and it was a lot closer than it should have been after that, and I say that with all respect to the other team,” Boughner said. “There’s a couple of goals we’d like to have back, but we didn’t let them rattle us.”

Arizona finally got on the board with two goals from Michael Bunting and Clayton Keller to make it 4-2.

Jakob Chychrun, who had two strikes in the game, made it 4-3 to give the Coyotes some hope.

“We gave them two or three goals as a gift, and that’s hard to come back from,” Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said. “You make a late rally, but we shouldn’t have had to. We shouldn’t have given them those goals to start the game.”

Alexander Barabanov‘s first NHL goal made it 5-3 for the Sharks before Chychrun scored his second of the game for the 5-4 score.

“He played a real smart game, he’s got high-end skill, and he’s patient with his puck,” Boughner said. “You can tell he’s dangerous in the offensive zone, and he looks like a confident player.”

Evander Kane popped in an empty-netter to secure the win.

“They tried to push in the end and they almost made it, so I’m glad we won at the end, we scored that empty-netter,” Korenar said.

Darcy Kuemper got the start for the Coyotes and yielded four goals while making just seven saves.

“We stuck with it and got ourselves back and gave ourselves a chance to tie it up at the end,” Chychrun said. “It’s not the time to be negative and on a downer. It’s crunch time, and we need to stick with it.”

Adin Hill made 21 saves in relief.