SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Kasperi Kapanen scored his second goal of the game with Toronto short-handed and the Maple Leafs won for the fifth time in six games, beating the San Jose Sharks 5-3 on Thursday night.
John Tavares had a goal to extend his scoring streak to seven games, and Josh Leivo and Mitch Marner also had goals to give Toronto its eighth win in nine road games this season.
Frederik Andersen made 42 saves and assisted on Marner’s insurance goal with a pass to the opposite blue line late in the third period to seal the victory.
Joe Pavelski scored his fourth goal in the past three games, and Kevin Labanc and Marc-Edouard-Vlasic also scored for the Sharks, who had their four-game home winning streak snapped.
Martin Jones made 29 saves.
The Maple Leafs took the lead in the second thanks to a pair of odd-man rushes. Leivo tied the game early in the period when he converted a two-on-one off a pass from Tyler Ennis.
Then with the Sharks on the power-play midway through the second, Toronto took advantage of a turnover at the blue line by Pavelski to take the lead. Marner got the puck ahead to a streaking Kapanen, who went in all alone and beat Jones to make it 4-3.
Marner scored with 6:06 remaining to make it a two-goal game and give him three points on the night.
The teams had an action-packed first period that featured five goals, 28 shots and a penalty off the opening draw as the Sharks targeted Nazem Kadri for ripping out a chunk of Joe Thornton’s beard last season.
Barclay Goodrow went right after Kadri as soon as the game started, giving the Leafs a power play just 8 seconds into the game. That led to the first goal when Tavares’ centering pass deflected off Vlasic’s skate and into the net just after Goodrow got out of the box.
The Sharks tied it with help from a fortunate bounce of their own as Erik Karlsson’s dump-in bounced in front of the net instead of going around the boards. Andersen never saw it and Labanc knocked the loose puck into the open net.
Patrick Marleau then got his first point against San Jose after scoring 1,082 for the Sharks during his 19 years with them when he took advantage of a bad line change to find Kapanen on a two-on-one.
But Pavelski tied it with a deflection off a pass from Brent Burns on a power play about a minute later and then set up Vlasic for his goal late in the period that made it 3-2.
NOTES: Maple Leafs F Auston Matthews (shoulder) skated in the morning but will miss his eighth straight game. … Sharks F Tomas Hertl was scratched with a lower-body injury. … Former Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov was honored before the game for getting inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame. His former teammate, Marleau, represented the Leafs in the ceremonial opening draw against Pavelski.
UP NEXT:
Toronto: Visit Anaheim on Friday.
San Jose: Host St. Louis on Saturday.
—
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
25% Bonus via Western Union
