In San Jose, the Tampa Bay Lighting’s Nikita Kucherov hit for the game-winner with 57 seconds left in the third period for a 4-3 win over the Sharks.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves in the Tampa win.
“I take this as a success,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s been a tough start with all these road games we’ve played, so let’s go home and see if you can string a few [wins] together.”
Erik Karlsson hit for a double for San Jose.
“We weren’t afraid of losing today,” Karlsson said. “We did, and it hurts. And we’re disappointed. I think one of the problems here lately has been that we’ve been a little bit too afraid to make mistakes, and a little bit too afraid to try and win games. And in order to win games in this league, you’re gonna have to take some risks. Over time, we’re going to [have to] learn when those risks are appropriate to take and when they’re not.”
Tampa took a 1-0 lead in the first period off a goal from Victor Hedman.
Karlsson scored his first to tie the game, 1-1, just after the Hedman goal.
Ross Colton restored lead at 2-1 for Tampa.
Nico Sturm tied the game, again, 2-2.
“I think we’re going in the right direction, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to win hockey games,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “And, unfortunately, we’re not quite there yet.”
With less than two minutes remaining in the middle frame, Alex Killorn gave Tampa a 3-2 lead.
“When you come to the West Coast, you always want to win and get more points than games played, and we did a good job with that,” Killorn said.
Karlsson tied the game, 3-3, early in the third period.
James Reimer made 22 saves in the San Jose loss.
