Pavelski scores in shootout to lift Sharks over Coyotes

Joe Pavelski (Photo by Ivanmakarov at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0)

GLENDALE, Ariz. — It took Aaron Dell 38 games to get into his first career shootout, and the San Jose Sharks goalie made it a good one.

Dell was perfect through the three rounds of the shootout and had 30 saves, and Joe Pavelski scored the only goal of the tiebreaker to lift San Jose over the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 on Tuesday night.

“I only had to make one save. The other two guys missed the net,” Dell said.

Pavelski scored on San Jose’s first attempt. Joe Thornton and Mikkel Boedker had regulation goals for San Jose.

Arizona had a power play in overtime after Tomas Hertl was called for tripping, but they couldn’t convert. The Coyotes had rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the second period.

The Sharks beat Arizona for the second time in four days after Saturday’s overtime win.

“Nights like this is where you need a spark from somebody,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said of Dell. “That’s the reason he’s in there. He gave us one.”

Antti Raanta had 20 saves for Arizona. Brad Richardson had a goal and assist, but the Coyotes lost their fourth straight game and have dropped 17 of 21.

Still, Arizona earned its fifth point in the past five games by forcing overtime for the third time in that stretch.

“Our team played well. You’d like to obviously win the game but that’s a veteran team over there,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “They’ve got a lot of experience. Five-on-five, I thought obviously we were the better team.”

The Sharks, playing the second game of a back-to-back for the eighth time this season, scored first on a power play. Thornton centred to Logan Couture, who turned and delivered a backhand pass to Thornton. Raanta left too much empty net to allow Thornton his 11th goal at 5:37 of the first.

“Every time we touch the ice, good things seem to happen right now,” Thornton said the Sharks’ power play, which is 5 of 10 in its last five games. “Just got to continue to work at it.”

Boedker made it 2-0 when he scored against his former team. Boedker, traded away from Arizona in February 2016 during his eighth season in the desert, sent a wrist shot past defenceman Alex Goligoski and Raanta 34 seconds into the second period.

“We come up with speed through the neutral zone and I was able to get a good shot off through their defenceman, and it went in,” Boedker said.

The Coyotes made it 2-1 at 16:05 of the second. Jordan Martinook knocked down Jason Demers’ high shot with his stick and into the net for Martinook’s fourth goal.

Richardson was there to clean up a rebound when Nick Cousins’ shot bounced off Dell’s body. The goal at 6:10 of the third culminated a stretch of strong offensive play from the Coyotes, who put shot after shot on Dell in the final period as fatigue seemed to set in on the road-weary Sharks.

San Jose played its 10th game of the past 14 on the road.

“Going back-to-back is tough. Obviously we didn’t play the third like we wanted to,” Thornton said. “But to get points on the road … it’s a huge two points.”

NOTES: San Jose is 11-2-3 against Pacific Division teams. Arizona is only 1-7-5 against division opponents this season. … Coyotes D Luke Schenn returned after missing the past two games, with D Kevin Connauton scratched for the first time in 15 games. … Sharks F Jannik Hansen missed his seventh game in the Sharks’ last eight.

UP NEXT

Sharks: At Colorado on Thursday night.

Coyotes: At Nashville on Thursday night.