In San Jose, Adin Hill returned from injured reserve on Saturday and made 29 saves in a 5-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Kings.
The win completed a home-and-home sweep for the Sharks, who defeated the Kings, 4-3, on Thursday.
“I felt pretty good,” Hill said. “The guys did a [heck] of a job in front of me tonight and kept chances to a minimum and boxed guys out and made my job simple.”
The Sharks moved to 26-25-7.
Tomas Hertl hit for a double for the Sharks.
“It’s nice,” San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. “We’re just rolling our bench. We’re getting contributions from every line and we can spread ice time out, and we’re staying out of the penalty box.”
The Kings dropped to 32-20-8.
“Our team right now has to forget about this one,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s done. But we’ve got to make a decision, if we’re going to wallow in pity, or if we’re going to attempt to overcome.
“We have a tough task ahead of us with the teams we’re going to play, but we don’t give ourselves a chance if we’re going to wallow.”
Timo Meier gave Hill all the offense he needed with a 1-0 lead in the first period, the strike came off the power play.
“Even after they scored the power-play goal, I thought it was a pretty evenly played game,” McLellan said. “We had some chances, Hill made some really good saves. The back-to-back turnovers below our goal line really hurt our team, and then they got rolling after that.”
Matt Nieto and Jonathan Dahlen pushed the lead to 3-0.
Hertl scored in the middle frame for a 4-0 lead, and once in the third for the 5-0 final.
“We went through a lot of adversity, [but] we’re getting healthy and we’re starting to play well,” Boughner said. “Who knows where that takes us. We’ve got a tough game on Tuesday against one of the best teams in the league (Florida Panthers), but we’re going to enjoy this one tonight for sure.”
Cal Petersen made 22 saves in the LA loss.
“It looks like he’s fighting his way back,” Boughner said. “He’s found his touch again. The one problem I had with his game [before] was he wasn’t winning enough puck battles in the offensive zone. … That’s where his game is the best, when he’s digging. And he got rewarded.”
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