SAN JOSE — Erik Karlsson scored 57 seconds into overtime to give the San Jose Sharks a 4-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at SAP Center on Thursday.
Karlsson took a pass from Timo Meier and scored on a breakaway, lifting the puck over the Maple Leafs goalie Erik Kallgren.
“It’s nice the way that developed,” Karlsson said. “I just had to get going and trust in Timo that he would get the puck there. I made up my mind fairly early and stuck to it and it went in, luckily.”
Video: TOR@SJS: Karlsson wins it in OT on the breakaway
Logan Couture scored twice, including his 300th NHL goal, Karlsson had a goal and two assists, and Alexander Barabanov had two assists for the Sharks (3-7-0), who won for the first time in four games in San Jose. Kaapo Kahkonen made 22 saves for his first win since April 23.
“I thought we were intense from the drop of the puck,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “That’s a dangerous team. You see the talent they have. We deserved to win tonight. We deserved the two points tonight.”
Mitchell Marner had a goal and an assist, and Alexander Kerfoot and Morgan Rielly each had two assists for the Maple Leafs (4-3-1). Kallgren made 27 saves in his first start since Oct. 17.
“I thought that San Jose’s best players gave us a real hard time today,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We had a hard time handling that. We couldn’t get much going. Every time those guys got on the ice, they tilted the ice, so that was a problem for us.”
Couture gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead 26 seconds into the first period on a backhand off a pass Matt Nieto.
Video: TOR@SJS: Couture wins the puck race to open scoring
David Kampf tied it 1-1 at 5:14 from the left face-off circle after a setup by Kerfoot.
San Jose scored on each penalty on a 5-on-3 power play to take a 3-1 lead in the second period.
“We found a way against a good hockey team with a lot of skill up front, and I think we forced them to play the game we wanted to play, rather than the game they wanted to play,” Couture said.
Couture’s 300th NHL goal made it 2-1 at 5:15, and Meier increased the lead to 3-1 at 5:57 when he tipped a shot from Couture through traffic for his first goal of the season in his 10th game. He scored an NHL career-high 35 goals in 77 games last season.
“I was pretty pumped, obviously, since I haven’t scored since March,” Meier said. “Nice to get rewarded.”
Video: TOR@SJS: Couture buries Barbanov’s pass
Marner cut it to 3-2 at 19:37 on a backdoor tap-in off a pass from Rielly.
“If there’s a positive out of the game, it’s you’re down 3-1 and you find a way to come back and get a point and give yourself a chance to get the second point,” Keefe said. “We had some opportunities there in the third period to go ahead in the game, but we couldn’t get it in.”
Austin Matthews tied it 3-3 at 5:38 of the third period with a power-play goal from the high slot.
“I just don’t think we’ve really put together a full 60-minute game,” Matthews said. “I think that consistency within the game and momentum shifts are kind of hurting us right now.”
NOTES: Couture has 640 points (300 goals, 340 assists) in 855 games in 14 NHL seasons, all with the Sharks. He is their third player to score 300 goals (Patrick Marleau, 522; Joe Pavelski, 355). … Maple Leafs forward William Nylander had his five-game point streak end (three goals, two assists). … Matthews’ goal was his 261st to pass Wendel Clark for eighth in Maple Leafs history. … San Jose went 2-for-3 on the power play after going 2-for-27 (7.4 percent) the first nine games. Toronto went 1-for-4, only the second power-play goal the Sharks have allowed this season (28-for-30, 93.3 percent).
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