Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski scored goals 30 seconds apart late in the third period to help the Sharks clinch the playoffs in their final home game of the season with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night.

“There’s a sense of relief, but it can’t be a sense of relaxation,” coach Todd McLellan said. “When we came in, we immediately looked at what happened tonight around the league, and there’s still a chance for home ice. It would be a nice thing to have.”

Raffi Torres also scored for the Sharks, who moved into a tie for fourth place in the West with Los Angeles with two games remaining in the race for home-ice advantage. The Sharks visit the Kings in the season finale Saturday after playing at Phoenix on Wednesday night.

It’s been quite a roller-coaster season for the Sharks, who won their first seven games and lost 17 of the next 23 before going on their current 12-3-1 stretch to save their season.

“It was a crazy year. It’s obviously not over yet,” Couture said. “Just the 48-game schedule, so many games back to back and inconsistency of the seven-game winning streak, the big losing streak and then the stretch we’ve gone on now. It’s been a weird year. Our main goal from day one was to get into the playoffs. We’ve done that now so I guess that’s all that matters going forward.”

Antoine Roussel and Loui Eriksson scored for the Stars, whose playoff hopes were dealt a serious blow. Dallas remains two points behind ninth-place Detroit and three behind eighth-place Columbus in the race for the final playoff spot. The Red Wings have a game in hand over both teams.

The Stars end the season with home games against Columbus and Detroit, and need to win both and get help to make the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

“It’s very disappointing,” defenseman Stephane Robidas said. “We battled hard all night. Since the deadline, everyone had written us off, and here we are. I think everyone has shown a lot of character. We needed a point tonight but couldn’t get it. It’s very disappointing.”

Dallas looked as though it would gain two points behind a strong night from Kari Lehtonen but it was all erased in a flash late in the third period.

First, Pavelski tipped Brad Stuart’s point shot in with 5:37 remaining to tie the game.

While the sellout crowd was still celebrating that goal, Justin Braun’s point shot went to Patrick Marleau, who slid the puck to an open Couture, who knocked in his 20th goal of the season.

“Basically a full game of frustration turned into happiness with the go-ahead one there,” Couture said.

Lehtonen made 34 saves but had no chance on Couture’s game winner with 5:07 remaining.

“They had been pressing, and we had had good goaltending the whole game and we just couldn’t hold them at the end when we needed to,” coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We need help now. So we are going to have to bounce back, and we need help. We have to get two more wins.”

Antti Niemi made 24 saves in his 24th straight start for San Jose.

The teams traded goals in the first period with the Sharks striking first. Torres tipped in a centering pass from Scott Gomez for a power-play goal, and the Stars answered when Roussel beat Scott Hannan to a long rebound of a shot by Cody Eakin.

Dallas had chances to take the lead when Stuart was sent to the box for interference with 1:21 remaining on an elbowing penalty against Hannan. The best chance on that 5-on-3 came when San Jose’s Braun was stopped on a partial breakaway by Lehtonen.

Shortly after that two-man advantage ended, Marc-Edouard Vlasic was called for slashing at the end of the first period, giving Dallas 28 seconds more of 5-on-3 play to start the second.

The Stars didn’t squander that chance when Eriksson knocked in a rebound 17 seconds into the period to make it 2-1.

Lehtonen protected that lead the rest of the period, making tough stops on Vlasic, Dan Boyle and Andrew Desjardins to keep Dallas ahead heading into the third.

Game notes

Stars F Alex Chiasson, who scored three goals in two wins over San Jose earlier this month, sat out with a shoulder injury. … San Jose D Jason Demers missed his second straight game because of a lower-body injury. … The Sharks sold out every regular-season game for the third straight season.

The post Sharks rally past Stars to clinch playoff berth appeared first on IdealCapper.

Training camps will open on Sunday, and a 48-game regular season will begin next Saturday. The signing of the MOU also paved the way for the NHL to release the long-awaited revised schedule.

Twenty-six of the 30 teams will play on opening day. All games during the season will be played within the two respective conferences.

In all, 720 games will be played over a 99-day regular season. There will be at least one game on each day of the season, which will end on April 27. Again, 26 of 30 teams will be in action that day.

The playoffs will begin on April 30. The latest the Stanley Cup finals will end is June 28.

The trade deadline will be April 3, and free agency will open July 5.

Teams will play 18 games within their division: four games (two home and two away) against two of the teams in the division, five games (three home and two away) against another team in the division, and five games (two home and three away) against the remaining divisional opponent.

To complete the 720-game schedule, clubs will play three games against each of the 10 remaining non-divisional opponents in their conference.

Outside the division, a team will face five clubs twice at home and once away, and play once at home and twice on the road against the other five teams.

It took another lengthy negotiation to end the four-month lockout. The sides worked on the MOU all week, after a tentative deal was reached last Sunday morning — the 113th day of the lockout — and needed all day Saturday to finish it.

The announcement that the deal was signed came several hours after the union easily ratified the tentative agreement that was reached after an all-night, 16-hour bargaining session last weekend.

The more than 700 union members had a 36-hour window from Thursday night until Saturday morning to vote electronically. The players’ vote wasn’t unanimous, as a source told ESPN that 667 players voted “yes,” while 12 voted “no.” The players saw an 89 percent turnout in voting.

The NHL board of governors unanimously approved the deal on Wednesday.

The NHL hoped to open camps on Sunday, and that prospect seemed in jeopardy Saturday until the document was signed at 10 p.m. ET.

The new deal is for 10 years, but either side can opt out of it after eight. The previous agreement was in effect for seven seasons.

While this negotiation was long, the sides were able to rescue at least part of the season. The NHL also played a 48-game campaign following a lockout in the 1994-95 season.

The 2004-05 season was completely canceled because of a lockout. This season’s forced the cancellation of 510 regular-season games, the Winter Classic and the All-Star Game.

No preseason games will be played in the seven days before the regular season gets under way.

The post NHL season to open next Saturday appeared first on IdealCapper.