NHL Game Summary - San Jose at Minnesota
St. Paul, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - Jason Pominville scored the deciding goal of the shootout to lead the Minnesota Wild past the San Jose Sharks, 4-3, on Thursday.
After Logan Couture beat Darcy Kuemper with a shot through the legs, Mikko Koivu answered back by moving the puck to his backhand and roofing a shot over Antti Niemi. Even at one goal apiece after two rounds, Pominville went in slow and wristed a shot past Niemi's glove and Kuemper stoned Patrick Marleau for the win.
Kyle Brodziak scored two late third-period goals to force extra time, Koivu also lit the lamp and Thomas Vanek had two assists for the Wild, who had Kuemper make 25 saves.
"We were getting pucks to the net but weren't get many high-quality chances," said Brodziak. "Fortunately we were able to break them down there in the third and got a few in."
Mirco Mueller, Joe Thornton and Tommy Wingels all scored for San Jose, which was coming off a 3-2 shootout win over Colorado on Tuesday.
"We wanted the extra point and it's disappointing when you give that up," said Thornton. "I thought that we played a pretty good game tonight, though."
Niemi turned aside 43 shots in defeat.
After Jason Zucker's shot clanged off the post 23 seconds into the third, Joe Pavelski intercepted Nate Prosser's pass and entered the offensive zone before feeding Joe Thornton, who made it a 3-1 game with a wrist shot just over a minute later.
Brodziak re-directed Vanek's pass from up high over a sprawled Niemi to pull the Wild within a goal 5:13 into the final stanza.
The pair combined for another goal midway through the frame. Vanek raced through the neutral zone up the left side and sent a cross-ice pass to Brodziak, who tipped the puck under the arm of Niemi for a tied game.
Marleau corraled a rebound, but his backhander was robbed by the quick glove of Kuemper nearly two minutes into the extra session. Brent Burns had a potential game-winning score waved off with 1:10 to go after he made contact with Kuemper.
Jason Demers appeared to wrist a shot over the glove of Kuemper 6:19 into the game, but the goal was waved off after Couture was ruled to have made incidental contact with the netminder.
Mueller then scored his first career goal after his shot from the left corner deflected off Zach Parise and through the legs of Kuemper with 3:54 remaining in the opening stanza.
Wingels added to San Jose's lead with a snap shot under the arm of Kuemper 4:20 into the second on the power play.
The Wild got on the board 8:40 into the second. Koivu crashed the net and tipped in Zucker's pass from down low for a 2-1 score.