Logan Couture gave the San Jose Sharks life despite spending some time at a hospital on Saturday.
Couture scored two goals in San Jose’s 6-4 win, which ended a four-game losing streak and averted a near-disaster as the Anaheim Ducks almost came back after falling behind 5-1. Anaheim brought the score to within one goal before the Sharks added an insurance tally.
Couture scored San Jose’s first two goals despite dealing with a mystery ailment that cast some serious doubt over his chances to play on Saturday. Obviously, the Sharks were glad he did.
Seriously though, things got pretty tense for San Jose in the third period.
As the Mercury News’ Dave Pollak points out, Anaheim generated a 10-1 shot advantage during one especially tense stretch. Antti Niemi had to make some big saves and discussion about Sharks head coach Todd McLellan’s job security cropped up again:
From an impressive stretch that covered a bit more than five minutes of game time, Corey Perry (two goals, one assist) and Ryan Getzlaf (one goal, two assists) combined for three unanswered goals and looked like they might take over the game on their own.
The Sharks managed to lock it up in part thanks to a 6-4 empty-netter from Matt Nieto. While Couture’s sickness storyline was the best story of the game, Tommy Wingels might have been the best player; he generated one goal and three assists and generally made a lot of things happen on the ice.
San Jose probably would have enjoyed a smoother ride to the finish line, yet the bottom line is that they beat their California rivals and ended their losing streak. We’ll see if they can build on this.