SAN JOSE, CA (AP) — Rudolfs Balcers and Ryan Donato scored in the second period, and the San Jose Sharks completed a two-game sweep of the Minnesota Wild with a 4-2 victory Wednesday night.
Nikolai Knyzhov scored his first career goal and Evander Kane had an empty-netter for the Sharks. Martin Jones made 26 saves for San Jose.
The Sharks grabbed control with a strong second period, beating Kahkonen for the first two goals, with Brent Burns involved in both.
Early in the period, Burns hit Tomas Hertl with a long stretch pass from his own zone. Hertl then sent a saucer pass toward the goal that Balcers got to and beat Kahkonen from in close.
Then, with the Sharks on the power play midway through the period, Burns’ shot from deep was stopped by Kahkonen, but Donato got to the rebound and backhanded it home against his former team.
“Tonight we gave them way too many grade A chances,” Wild forward Ryan Hartman said. “Everything they got was given to them by us. We have to do a better job of limiting their chances and getting it out of our zone.”
The Wild got one back midway through the third when Kaprizov’s shot went through a screen by Hartman and beat Jones.
Knyzhov responded a few minutes later to restore the two-goal lead.
Zuccarello scored with 12.1 seconds left to make it a one-goal game, but Kane sealed it with his empty-net goal.
“We had a good push there at the end but it was too late,” Hartman said.
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