Skinner scores 2, Hurricanes beat Sharks 5-2
(AP)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jeff Skinner scored twice in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the San Jose Sharks 5-2 on Friday night.
Chris Terry and Joakim Nordstrom also scored, and Jordan Staal added an empty-netter for Carolina. The Hurricanes bounced back from a 4-2 loss at Ottawa on Thursday night and haven't lost consecutive games in regulation in more than two months.
Brent Burns and Tomas Hertl scored for San Jose, which has the league's second-best road record. The Sharks had won three straight and were 4-0-1 in their last five games.
Cam Ward was back in the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury and made 22 saves for the Hurricanes.
Martin Jones stopped 32 shots for the Sharks.
The biggest goals of this one belonged to Skinner.
He made it 3-1 just 39 seconds into the third period with a score that initially was waved off. Skinner pushed in the rebound of Eric Staal's shot inside the right post but the officials disallowed it, saying there was incidental contact on Jones.
Carolina coach Bill Peters challenged and after a 2-minute review, that on-ice call was reversed.
That score became even more significant after Patrick Marleau cashed in on Ward's misplay behind the net, feeding Hertl for an easy goal to pull within 4-2 with 9:22 left.
Skinner then restored Carolina's two-goal lead with 4:28 left with a hard shot from the slot and Staal tacked on his empty-netter with 2:25 left.
That helped the Hurricanes improve to 19-9-6 in their last 35 games after a miserable start to the season. They haven't lost back-to-back games in regulation since Dec. 3, began the day four points outside of a wild-card spot and now face some big decisions before the trade deadline Feb. 29.
Carolina went up 2-1 when Nordstrom beat Jones with a blast from behind the circles with 7:35 left in the second off a smooth pass from Jordan Staal.
That came after Carolina scored first at 7:03 when Noah Hanifin uncorked a shot from the corner point and Terry deflected it past Jones with his stick waist high. Burns tied it at 14:07 with a shot from the slot.
NOTES: Carolina C Eric Staal ended a seven-game pointless streak with his assist on Skinner's first goal. ... Jordan Staal has points in 11 of his last 14 games, including four straight, and has 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists) in that span. ... Hurricanes C Riley Nash, who assisted on Terry's goal, has five points in four games. ... San Jose C Tommy Wingels (upper body) was scratched.