AN JOSE – A five-goal outburst in the first period was enough offense to lift the San Jose Sharks past the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-2 Wednesday night at sold-out HP Pavilion. The victory, pushed the Sharks atop the Pacific Division with 39 points in 32 games. Dallas has 39 points in 33 games. Phoenix is third with 37 points. Los Angeles, San Jose’s opponent Friday, holds down fourth with 34.
The Sharks, earning a third consecutive win, established a franchise record for fastest five goals at the start of a game with Wednesday’s performance in 14:47. The record was 18:50 in 1996 against Chicago.
Benn Ferriero, recalled from Worcester to replace the injured Marty Havlat, showed off his speed to key the game’s first goal.
Ferriero raced to the endboards to prevent the Lightning from clearing the zone. Another 15 seconds elapsed with the Sharks in the Tampa Bay zone before Ferriero pulled the puck away from Lightning defenseman Eric Brewer and pushed the puck to Joe Thornton. When Ferriero moved to the front of the crease, he received Thornton’s pass and took two whacks at the puck, producing his second goal of the season at 3:26.
San Jose went 2-for-2 on the power play in the first period.
Lightning defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron was called for tripping Ryane Clowe at 4:26 and San Jose needed 25 seconds to make it 2-0. When Brent Burns one-timed a cross-ice feed from Thornton, the short rebound was controlled by Joe Pavelski in the low slot. Pavelski pulled a shot inside the left post past goaltender Mathieu Garon at 4:51 for his 14th goal of the year.
Andrew Desjardins netted his third goal of the season at 6:21 for a 3-0 cushion. Andrew Murray stole the puck on the left boards and set up Desjardins for a hard shot from the slot. The rebound went to the endboards, where Murray found the puck again and fed Desjardins for a wrap-around goal that sent Garon to the bench for the rest of the game.
Logan Couture scored the next two goals, pulling him into a tie at 14 with Pavelski.
Couture’s 50th career goal, at 13:13, was a wrist shot inside the left post off a cross-ice helper from Patrick Marleau. At 14:47, the Sharks were on the power play when Couture buried a rebound of a Clowe shot for the 5-0 advantage.
Tampa Bay produced one goal for the period, Dominic Moore redirecting a long shot from Brewer past Antti Niemi at 15:38.
San Jose coach Todd McLellan called it “a complete game. That initial penalty-kill was important for us. Their system is very effective when they get a lead.”
After a scoreless second period featuring 34 shots on net, the teams each scored again in the closing period.
Burns accepted Michal Handzus’ face-off win at the right dot and one-timed a long shot into the top left corner of the net against a helpless goaltender Dwayne Roloson at 1:15 for a 6-1 lead.
“A great face-off by ‘Zus,” said Burns about his sixth goal of the year.
Martin St. Louis, back in the Lightning line-up after a five games away because of an injury, buried his 10th goal of the season from the high slot off a feed from Teddy Purcell at 7:45. Prior to the injury on Dec. 8, St. Louis had the NHL’s third-longest active consecutive games player streak at 499.
The Sharks reached seven goals for the first time this season when Marleau scored off a rebound of a Couture shot at 12:41.
