Evgeni Nabokov made 45 saves and Joe Thornton had a goal and an assist to lead the San Jose Sharks to their third straight win, 3-2, over the Blackhawks last night in Chicago.
Dany Heatley and Jason Demers also scored for the Sharks, who moved ahead of the Blackhawks into first place in the Western Conference, and snapped Chicago’s four-game overall and five-game home winning streaks.
Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa each had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks, who outshot the Sharks, 47-14.
Chicago’s Cristobal Huet made 11 saves, but his shutout streak ended at 143:31 when Heatley scored 3:18 into the first. Huet had 3-0 shutouts in his two previous starts.
Huet had not permitted a goal since Buffalo’s Clarke MacArthur beat him late in the second period of the Sabres’ 2-1 win Dec. 11.
San Jose capitalized on Chicago’s mistakes to avenge 4-3 and 7-2 losses to the Blackhawks in November.
Ducks 4, Avalanche 2 - Ryan Getzlaf scored with 25.9 seconds remaining, completing a late rally by visiting Anaheim.
Trailing, 2-0, late in the third period, the Ducks scored four unanswered goals for their fourth win in five games.
Scott Niedermayer and Dan Sexton had goals to tie up the game, then Getzlaf scored the go-ahead goal.
The Avalanche pulled goalie Craig Anderson for the final seconds, and Todd Marchant added an empty-net goal.
Boston University product Brandon Yip scored his first NHL goal for Colorado.![]()




