Sharks at Coyotes
The San Jose Sharks have earned points in five of their first six games of 2018 and hope to continue the trend when they visit the struggling Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. Nine different players landed on the scoresheet and Martin Jones turned aside 35 shots as San Jose posted a 4-1 victory at Los Angeles on Monday to improve to 10-2-3 against Pacific Division rivals.
“You battle a bit more when you’re playing a rival and a division team that’s ahead of you in the standings,” Sharks forward Chris Tierney told reporters after recording a goal and an assist to help his team improve to 3-1-2 this month. “That’s what this team is built for, is playing those tight games where you try to lock it down.” The Sharks got a goal from Joonas Donskoi late in the third period on Saturday to forge a tie before winning 6-5 in overtime against the Coyotes, who have dropped four of their last six (1-3-2) and own the league’s worst record. “I think we did a lot of good things (Saturday),” Arizona center Derek Stepan told reporters. “The majority of plays out there, we did the right thing. We were closer to that 60-minute hockey game we strive to play.” Stepan recorded a goal and an assist in the contest to give him eight points in as many games and 28 for the season, placing him second on the team behind rookie Clayton Keller (34).
TV: 9 p.m. ET, NBCS California (San Jose), FS Arizona Plus
ABOUT THE SHARKS (23-13-6): Defenseman Brent Burns saw his five-game point streak come to an end Monday but leads the team with 33 after notching a goal and seven assists thus far this month. Joe Thornton scored his 10th goal against Los Angeles to tie Logan Couture for second on the team with 31 points and passed Wayne Gretzky for 21st place on the all-time list in games played with 1,488. Donskoi notched two assists on Monday, giving him six points in his last four games, while defenseman Dylan DeMelo also set up two goals after missing three contests due to illness.
ABOUT THE COYOTES (10-28-7): Keller, who also has scored a team-best 14 goals, has notched an assist in each of his last two games while Christian Fischer has registered four in his last three contests. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the team’s representative for the All-Star Game later this month, snapped a 17-game goal-scoring drought Saturday with his seventh of the season to go along with 13 assists. Josh Archibald has recorded two of his three goals in the last two games while the recently acquired Richard Panik posted an assist Saturday in his second contest with the team.
OVERTIME
1. San Jose placed veteran D Paul Martin, who has played just three games this season due to an ankle injury, on waivers Monday.
2. Arizona G Antti Raanta, who was rested Saturday, is 2-2-1 with a .922 save percentage in his last five appearances.
3. The Sharks have won three straight against the Coyotes and are 4-0-2 in their last six meetings.