SAN JOSE, Calif. — Logan Couture had a goal and three assists, Evander Kane scored his team-leading 10th of the season and the San Jose Sharks held off the Minnesota Wild 6-5 on Thursday night.
Tomas Hertl added a goal and two assists for the Sharks in their second consecutive win. Before that, they dropped five straight and seven of eight.
Eric Staal had a goal and two assists for the Wild, who lost for the fourth time in five games.
Minnesota trailed 6-2 midway through the third period before scoring three straight goals — the first two in a span of 74 seconds.
Brad Hunt got his fifth goal and Ryan Donato his first for the Wild. Justin Zucker’s fifth with 4:35 left cut it to 6-5.
Sharks goalie Martin Jones made 21 saves, highlighted by a terrific stop of a potential tying goal with just under 2:30 left, when he got his pad on Zach Parise’s shot in front.
Couture scored the game’s first goal, his second of the season, 52 seconds in. Timo Meier got his fourth early in the first period to make it 2-0.
The Sharks took a 4-0 lead into the first intermission after Marcus Sorensen’s third goal and Radim Simek’s first.
Simek was playing his second game since March 12, when the defenceman tore his ACL and MCL in his right knee.
Minnesota closed to 4-1 on Luke Kunin’s third goal at 15:51 of the second — the first of four goals the teams combined to score in less than 3 1/2 minutes.
After Tomas Hertl got his sixth on a power play to give San Jose a 5-1 lead, Staal scored his sixth goal for Minnesota, extending his point streak to six games.
Kane scored in the last minute of the second to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games and his point streak to four. He also had an assist on Couture’s goal.
Devin Dubnyk made 17 saves in the final two periods for Minnesota after replacing Alex Stalock. The former Sharks goalie gave up four goals.
NOTES: Wild forward Mats Zuccarello had an assist to extend his point streak to five games. . Dubnyk played his 500th game. . Sharks C Dylan Gambrell was back in the lineup after missing the previous three games with a hand injury. . D Dalton Prout (upper body) and D Jacob Middleton (shoulder) wore non-contact jerseys in Thursday’s morning skate. . Melker Karlsson (upper body) is day to day. … Kane needs one assist to reach 200.
UP NEXT
Wild: At the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
Sharks: Host the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
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Gideon Rubin, The Associated Press
