The San Jose Sharks visited the Vancouver Canucks Saturday and took advantage of the Los Angeles Kings losing 3-0 to the New Jersey Devils by defeating the Canucks, 5-3.
The win puts the Sharks five points clear of the Kings for second place in the Pacific Division.
Timo Meier struck twice in the win for San Jose.
Kevin Labanc and Logan Couture also scored for the Sharks who improved to 40-23-9 and are on a four-game streak.
Aaron Dell made 28 saves in win over Canucks – Photo by Jack Lima
“We’re in a good spot, but there’s still 10 games, there’s still 20 possible points for us to go and get,” Couture said. “We’re going to try to clinch our spot in the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs, then we’re going to get as high as we can, and then we’re going to get our game to where it needs to be come playoff time.”
Aaron Dell made 28 saves to pick up the win.
“Huge, gutsy performance,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “When you have the deck stacked, end of a road trip, we lost two men early, we were up and kind of let them back in the game and still found a way to rebound, I thought it was huge character, gutsy Â- all those adjectives – a fantastic win.”
Seemingly improbable, at least a few weeks back, the Sharks are just six points of Vegas Golden Knights for the top spot in the Pacific.
“Yeah, there’s a chance,” Couture said of catching Vegas. “We’re just going to try and go and win the next game.”
Nikolay Goldobin, Bo Horvat and Alexander Edler scored for the Canucks who dropped to 25-38-9.
“It’s tough right now,” Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. “You score three on the power play, and you should win in this league. It’s tough to take.”
The Canucks are on a six-game skid and were officially eliminated from the playoff race this weekend.
“You have to look at the positives,” Horvat said. “We did score tonight. We scored three goals and our power play was clicking.”
Tomas Hertl added an empty netter late to seal it.
[WATCH:Â All Sharks vs. Canucks highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves in taking the loss.
“I thought our power play was really good. It’s tough when we score three goals at home and don’t come up with a win, so I have to be better,” Markstrom said after the game.
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