Kings Sweep and Winners of Four in a Row but Fall to the Ducks

The San Jose Sharks traveled down to the Staple Center for a two-game tilt against the LA Kings. An affair in which the Sharks' second line came alive and dictated the pace of play for a vast majority, scoring a goal in every period for the eventually 3-0 Shutout, where Matin Jones had 30 saves against his former team. In the first, at 3 minutes in, we saw a Balcers feed to the front of the net, Where Tomas Hertl tips the pass in for the 1-0 score. At 11 minutes into the second period, Hertl again, this time sending a pass from behind the net way out to Timo Mierer, who roofs it home, making it 2-0. After a Dylan Gambrel goal is called back five minutes into the third, Sharks find the empty-net goal with 37 seconds left in regulation when Brent Burns breaks his stick. Balcers immediately recognizes this and hands Burns his left-handed stick and immediately skips to the bench to reclaim a new one. Burns them passes Balcers a pass from to the boards into the empty, an incredible scene to see be played out. Sharks win 3-0.

In game two, the Sharks went right back to Jones, hot the heels of his stellar shutout performance. Sharks get to quick work on Jonathan Quick; four and a half minutes into the first, Kevin LeBanc dumps a puck in deep, only to be fed it by Couture, slapping in like a pinball, bouncing and hitting off everything on sight before finally finding the back of the net for the early 1-0 advantage. 2 minutes later, Kings come roaring back, tipping a puck past Jones to tie the tilt 1-1. Five minutes into the second period, Couture goes in deep behind the net to retrieve a puck that he swings out front to the tape of Evander Kane's stick, which puts it past the pads of a sprawled out Jonathan Quick to go ahead 2-1. Later on in the period, with four seconds left, while on a San Jose power play with, the Kings tie it at two pieces with a short-handed goal. There was a lot of speculation on how the Sharks would respond after giving up such a deflating goal going into intermission. Dylan Gambrel answers the skeptics when goaltender Jonathan Quick turns the puck over behind the net, which John Leonard instantly sends Gambrell's way for the easy score. The eventual game-winner, Sharks win 3-2 for the series sweep and, for the first time all season, win four games in a row!

Riding high on their longest win streak of the season, the Sharks welcomed the Anaheim Ducks into the SAP Center Tuesday, April 6th, in a game that the Sharks really couldn't muster up much of anything outside of Patty Marleau's powerplay goal in the second. A game in which Boughner tried implemented unconventional tactics to spark his team, such as pulling goaltender Martin Jones with 7:13 left in the third, which immediately backfired. Despite matching Anaheim for the most part with 34 to 35 shots on goal, the Sharks fall 5-1, ending their four-game win streak.