LOS ANGELES -- Sweet redemption, indeed. But not without some Sharks-style drama, first. San Jose is off to the second round with a 6-3 win Friday night which knocked out their bitter rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, in five games.
How it happened: The stage had been set for yet another great Kings comeback story and a Sharks collapse that would have been some kind of storyline for 48 hours before Game 6, with San Jose seeing its 3-0 second-period lead erased and the demons of playoffs past perhaps resurfacing.
But third-period goals from Joonas Donskoi and Joe Pavelski showed that newfound resolve that this year’s Sharks team seems to have found under new coach Peter DeBoer.