Sharks stay hot in win over Kings

In San Jose, Martin Jones made 32 saves  for the Sharks in a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.

The Sharks have five of six.

The Kings jumped to a 1-0 lead, but quickly surrendered that advantage in a three-goal outburst from the Sharks.

“[The Kings] were ahead of us in the standings, so they are all important points for us, even though we’re on the outside looking in (at the top four spots in the eight-team Honda West Division in the race for the Stanley Cup Playoffs),” Jones said. “Important points the next couple of weeks, and we’ll see where we’re at.”

Alex Iafallo opened the scoring in the game for the 1-0 for LA.

“I thought coming in here I was going to get a lot of questions about the breakaways, the power play, all the chances that we didn’t capitalize on,” Los Angeles head coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s the garbage we’re giving up defensively, long chances again. Every time we play against this team, it’s a long chance. Poor pinch, a poor cover, and it’s in our net. We chase the game night after night after night.”

Kevin Labanc, Patrick Marleau  and Rudolfs Balcers were the Sharks’ strikers in the response to that first LA goal.

“Obviously, getting the first goal was a positive, but then we hit the snooze button for a little bit, so next thing you know we’re down 3-1, so that’s certainly not the recipe for success,” LA’s Anze Kopitar said.

Jaret Anderson-Dolan got the Kings back on the board to cut the advantage to 3-2.

Dylan Gambrell pushed the lead back to two goals with a shorthanded strike in the third period.

“He’s worked hard at his game and he’s become a pretty complete player for us, and nice to see him get one shorthanded,” San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. “He’s just worked in all the small areas. We’ve asked him to be better in the face-off circle, we’ve asked him to kill penalties, play a responsible role for us, and he really has. He’s provided that third-line center role for us all year and he’s improving every day, and it’s nice to see.”

Tomas Hertl added an empty-netter to ice the win.

Calvin Petersen made 24 saves in the loss.