Ryane Clowe used a borrowed stick to score the late game-winner as the San Jose Sharks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Monday for a ninth straight road win.
The Western Conference-leading Sharks (39-11-9) moved within one road triumph of tying a franchise record for successive wins away from home, and within a point of the Washington Capitals for the top spot in the NHL.
Clowe scored the decisive goal at 13.21 in the third period using a stick owned by his more prolific teammate Dany Heatley.
“I guess it goes to show, it’s not the player, it’s the stick,” joked Clowe, who has scored 15 goals this season to Heatley’s 32. “I didn’t think there was any goals left in it, but there was one left. I’m going to have to hold on to that one.”
Goaltender Evgeni Nabokov played a valuable role with 32 saves, although he could not stop Toronto center Phil Kessel from tying the game on a snap shot that came with 51 seconds left in the second.
Eastern Conference strugglers Toronto (19-30-11) had opened the scoring on a Tyler Bozak goal in the first period.
San Jose, however, fired back through Dan Boyle and Joe Pavelski within the first six minutes of the second.
As well as winning the game, Clowe’s goal also handed Toronto netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere his first loss since joining the Maple Leafs.
Acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 31, Giguere became the first Maple Leafs goaltender to post shutouts in his first two games with the team, but he had no such luck against San Jose.
Toronto played shorthanded, with Christian Hanson and Fredrik Sjostrom both sidelined because of sickness.
The team was forced to promote 19-year-old Nazem Kadri, the seventh pick in last year’s Entry Draft.
“He skated well,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “This was a great opportunity for him, to see what the NHL is all about. He had a lot of turnovers. Things he can probably get away with in junior hockey, you can’t get away with in our league, let alone against a top team in the league.”
DUCKS 4, KINGS 2
At Anaheim, Corey Perry had a goal and two assists as the the home team snapped the Los Angeles Kings’ franchise-record nine-game winning streak with victory in the latest Freeway Faceoff on Monday night.
Jonas Hiller made 35 saves, while Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu had a goal and an assist apiece for the last-place Ducks, who tied a franchise record of their own with their 10th straight home win.
Ryan Getzlaf also scored during Anaheim’s three-goal second period, but the Canadian Olympian left in the second period with a sprained left ankle.
Oscar Moller and Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings, who hadn’t lost since Jan. 11 while rising to third place in the Western Conference.
Los Angeles had won five straight over Anaheim. Los Angeles fell one victory shy of a club-record eighth straight road win.
FLYERS 3, DEVILS 2
At Philadelphia, Mike Richards scored the go-ahead goal with less than eight minutes left in the third period to lead Philadelphia over New Jersey.
Richards pushed Kimmo Timonen’s pass from behind the goal past Martin Brodeur. James van Riemsdyk and Jeff Carter also scored to help the Flyers rally from a 2-0 deficit and snap a two-game losing streak.
In other NHL action, it was:
● Avalanche 5, Blues 2
● Coyotes 6, Oilers 1
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