Bruins fail to land Sharks in San Jose

The Bruins have done a nice job lately against top NHL teams, and they didn’t play badly last night against the San Jose Sharks in the opener of their heavyweight tour of California.But a defensive breakdown and a fluky home-team goal helped the Sharks grab a 3-2 victory, ending a 5-0-2 B’s run of outcomes that produced at least one point.Now, the Bruins move down the coast to meet the Ducks in Anaheim on Friday and the Kings on Los Angeles on Saturday.“It was a competitive game,” B’s coach Claude Julien said. “You don’t like to lose, so it’s probably a bit of a bitter feeling right now. But the effort was there. The guys definitely tried. It was just a couple of breakdowns here and there. We had a few high-quality chances and it could have gone either way. But you end up on the losing side.“Nonetheless, you look at your team’s effort and how hard they played. You can’t necessarily be disappointed with that. We want to get some points on this road trip, there’s no doubt about that. It was a good effort here, we’ve just got to clean up a couple of little things that could have been a little different, and go from there.”The Bruins got a goal and an assist from David Krejci, who set up Loui Eriksson’s shorthanded breakaway goal that gave the visitors a 2-1 lead after one period. The Sharks knotted the score on a fluke play in the second period, when Ryan Spooner, trying to block a Brent Burns shot, instead deflected the puck past goalie Tuukka Rask (24 saves).In the third period, with Jimmy Hayes in the penalty box for a hit to the head, Sharks rookie Joonas Donskoi tipped a Joel Ward pass under Rask to give the home team the lead at 6:37.Krejci had a clean breakaway with 4:04 left, but pushed his forehander off a goal post. The B’s pressured with their net empty in the final 90 seconds, and Torey Krug had a great chance from the slot with 0:02 to play but put a shot into the glove of Sharks goalie James Reimer (21 saves).The Sharks found the net first, at 8:44 of the first period, when the Bruins left their net front uncovered and Melker Karlsson jumped in front, took a pass out from Donskoi behind the net, and easily scooped a forehander past Rask.Outplayed in the early minutes, the B’s began to perform much better over the rest of the period.The Bruins tied the game at 11:26, after David Pastrnak fired a shot from the right circle. The stop was made by Reimer. The rebound shot hit hard off Reimer and went perfectly to Krejci, charging at high speed down the slot. Krejci got his stick perfectly on the rebound and sizzled the puck right past Reimer.Then, with Hayes off for hooking, the B’s struck shorthanded. This one came on a center-ice turnover by the Sharks that you could see coming, as they botched a set power play pass play.Burns, the massive, bearded defenseman, committed a dreadful turnover, handing the puck to Krejci in center ice. He fed a quick feed that sent Eriksson in on a breakaway. Eriksson shot from a few feet out and, with Reimer deep in his net and giving up too much room stick-side, hit an open target for the 2-1 lead.The B’s should have claimed a 3-1 lead near the midway point of the second period, when fourth-liners Landon Ferraro and Noel Acciari broke in on the left side. Ferraro fed a lovely pass from the circle to Brett Connolly, coming late down the middle. Connolly had almost the entire net to hit, but he put his shot off the left pad of Reimer.The Sharks then went the other way and tied the game, as a Burns shot from the right circle hit the stick of Spooner in the low slot and deflected past Rask at 11:56. The goal was Burns’ 26th.The Sharks have the reputation as a talented team that always seems to fall short in the postseason. Maybe this edition, under coach Peter DeBoer, will finally go deep into the playoffs. That would not necessarily surprise Bruins coach Claude Julien.“They’re playing some of their better hockey right now,” Julien said.RESULTSPittsburgh 2 NY Islanders 1 (SO)Washington 2 Carolina 1 (OT)Toronto 4 Tampa Bay 1Florida 4 Montreal 1Ottawa 3 Minnesota 2 (OT)Philadelphia 4 Detroit 3Los Angeles 5 Dallas 2San Jose 3 Boston 2