Sharks rally with 3 in 3rd to beat Bruins at home

They carried a lead into the third period and then watched the Sharks show just how they rose to the top of the Western Conference.

Patrick Marleau, Milan Michalek and  former  Boston  captain  Joe Thornton  scored  in  a  6:16  span  of the third period to rally the Sharks to a 5-2 victory over the Boston Bruins in a match up of  the NHL's  top  two teams on Tuesday night. The Eastern Conference-leading Bruins, leading the league with 85 points, led 2-1 heading into the third period behind two first-period goals by Milan Lucic.  Boston had been 26-0-2 when leading after 40 minutes.  "We were excited for this," Bruins center Marc Savard said of the only regular-sea-son meeting with the Sharks. "After Christmas we all had it marked on our calendar. We wanted to be ready for this." Thornton was impressed with his former team. "They're a darn good team, probably one of the best we've played this year," Thornton said after capping the three-goal rally with his 13th goal. "If the power play was on a little bit more it would have been a different game." The Bruins went 0-for-4 on the power play, including a 46-second, two-man advantage in the second period. "We play fast, we play big," Thornton said.  "They came out really strong and we didn't have too many answers.  I think the second half of the game, the ice kind of tilted." The West-leading Sharks, who  have  81  points,  trailed  after two  periods  for  only  the  12th  time this season. "It's pretty rewarding to come back in a building like this and get a game like that in the third period," San Jose coach Todd McLellan said. Marleau tied the game with his 27th goal at 3:32, and Michalek and Thornton struck 2:20 apart. Marleau assisted on the goal by Thornton, who played his second game in Boston since he was traded to the Sharks on Nov. 30, 2005.

Thornton,  booed  when  he  had the  puck,  scored  when  Devin Setogouchi's  pass  from  behind  the net hit Thornton's left skate and beat Tim Thomas at 9:48. The goal stood up after a video review.

Marleau  assisted  on Mike Grier's empty-net  goal  with  28.6  seconds left,  giving  the  Bruins  their  frst three-goal loss of the season.

Ryane Clowe had three assists, and Rob Blake also scored as the Sharks spoiled Thomas’ 200th NHL game.

"They're the best team we've played so  far  this year  and  it  would  be nice  to get another  shot at  them  (in  the  Stanley Cup  finals),  hopefully with  both  teams  being healthy,"  Julien  said. "Hopefully we can work our way there, but that's a  long  ways  off  and there's a  lot of  things  to be  done  before  we  can even think about that." It was the first time in 10 games the Bruins didn't earn a point. "We played a 40-minute game, that's the bottom line,"  Savard  said.  "We didn't play the last 20 and they're too good of a team not to play (60) minutes of hockey and they took advantage of it."  Lucic, who had missed eight of 16 games with a pair of injuries, scored for the first time since Jan. 1.

Blue Jackets 3, Avalanche 0

At Columbus, Ohio, Dan LaCosta made 31 saves for his first career shutout in his second NHL start.

LaCosta,  who  won  his  first  start Saturday,  played  again  because rookie  Steve  Mason  is  out  due  to mononucleosis  and  regular  backup Wade Dubielewicz had the fu.

Andrew Murray, Jason Williams and Fredrik Modin scored third-period goals and Jan Hejda added two assists for Columbus.

Kings 4, Islanders 3, SO

At Uniondale, N.Y., Jack Johnson scored the only goal of the shootout in the final round as Los Angeles earned its fourth straight win.

Wayne Simmonds, Anze  Kopitar and Alexander Frolov scored for the Kings. Jonathan  Quick,  who  started  his  eight  straight  game,  turned aside  22  shots.  The Islanders got goals from Doug Weight, Tim Jackman and Andy Hilbert. Yann Danis Stopped 36 shots for the Islanders, who lost their third straight.

Panthers 5, Maple Leafs 4, OT At Sunrise, Fla., Richard Zednik, exactly one year after he  suffered a severe  neck  injury,  scored  his  second goal  at 1:02 of overtime  to  lift the  Panthers.  Brett  McLean,  Nathan Horton and Ville Peltonen also scored for Florida, 10-3-3 since Jan. 1. Niklas Hagman scored twice for Toronto, and Jamal Mayers and Nik Antropov added goals.

Thrashers 3, Lightning 1

At  Tampa,  Fla.,  Kari  Lehtonen made 40  saves,  including a  lunging glove  save  along  the  goal-line  on Tampa Bay  rookie Steven Stamkos' penalty  shot with  about  eight minutes to play in the third.

Colin Stuart, Slava Kozlov and Ilya Kovalchuk scored for the Thrashers, who won for the second time in eight games.

Gary Roberts scored for the Lightning, who has lost five of six.

Red Wings 5, Predators 3

At Nashville, Tenn., Henrik Zetterberg  and  Pavel  Datsyuk  each  had two  goals  and  an  assist  in Detroit's fifth straight victory.

Zetterberg has 18 points in his past 15 games. Datsyuk scored a power-play goal and added an empty-netter with 12 seconds left. Marian Hossa also had a power-play goal.

Joel Ward scored twice for Nashville.

Canucks 6, Blues 4

At St. Louis, Mats Sundin  scored twice  and  Jannik Hansen's  rebound goal with 4:42 to go capped Vancouver's  rally  from  a  pair  of  two-goal deficits. Andy McDonald had a goal and an assist in his first game back after missing 36 due to a broken left ankle for the Blues.