SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Joe Thornton scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:39 left in regulation to help the San Jose Sharks overcome a two-goal deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Thursday night. Justin Braun started the comeback with a goal late in the second and Patrick Marleau and Brent Burns scored tying goals earlier in the third for the Sharks, who have 10 wins and one tie in their last 11 home games against Pittsburgh. Burns added an empty-net goal and Antti Niemi made 19 saves for San Jose. Olli Maatta scored two goals and Chris Kunitz also scored for the Penguins, who last won at the Shark Tank on Oct. 22, 1997. Jeff Zatkoff made 42 saves in his first appearance since beating Los Angeles on Jan. 30. But Zatkoff would probably like another chance to stop the goal scored by Thornton. On what looked like an innocent play, Thornton flipped a shot from the blue line that fooled Zatkoff and went in over his shoulder. It gave the Sharks just their third win all season when trailing after two periods. The goal capped a wild third period that featured the Sharks tying the game with a short-handed goal, falling back behind and then tying the game again all in a span of 1:34. The scoring spree started after Matt Nieto was given a double-minor for high-sticking Simon Despres. The Sharks killed off the first penalty and then tied the game at 2 on a spectacular goal from Marleau, who took a pass from Jason Demers, faked out Evgeni Malkin and then beat Zatkoff with a backhand. The Penguins went back ahead 21 seconds later with their second power-play goal of the game when Brandon Sutter set up Maatta for his first-career two-goal game. That lead was also short-lived when Burns took a pass in the slot from Joe Pavelski 1:13 later and beat Zatkoff with his second goal in as many games after a 19-game scoring drought. Trailing 2-0, the Sharks took over control of the play in the final half of the second period thanks to some hard hits dished out by Raffi Torres, Jason Demers and Brent Burns. That energy translated into a goal when Tommy Wingels prevented Zatkoff from freezing a puck to set up Brauns point shot through a screen by Adam Burish. The goal ended an 18-game drought by San Joses defencemen since Dan Boyle scored against Detroit on Jan. 9. The Penguins got some reinforcements from deals made before Wednesdays trade deadline with forward Lee Stempniak and centre Marcel Goc making their debuts for Pittsburgh after arriving in town shortly after the morning skate. The game got off to a fast-paced start with no stoppage in the first 5-plus minutes. The Sharks threatened on a power-play midway through the period before the Penguins got goals from Maatta and Kunitz in the final 5 minutes to take the 2-0 lead. That was San Joses biggest deficit after the first period all season. NOTES: Goc had an assist on the first goal. ... Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby has not scored a goal in six career games against San Jose. The only other teams he has failed to score against are St. Louis (seven games) and Chicago (three games). ... Olympic figure skater Polina Edmunds, who trains at the Sharks practice facility, dropped the ceremonial first puck. SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Joe Thornton scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:39 left in regulation to help the San Jose Sharks overcome a two-goal deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Thursday night. Justin Braun started the comeback with a goal late in the second and Patrick Marleau and Brent Burns scored tying goals earlier in the third for the Sharks, who have 10 wins and one tie in their last 11 home games against Pittsburgh. Burns added an empty-net goal and Antti Niemi made 19 saves for San Jose. Olli Maatta scored two goals and Chris Kunitz also scored for the Penguins, who last won at the Shark Tank on Oct. 22, 1997. Jeff Zatkoff made 42 saves in his first appearance since beating Los Angeles on Jan. 30. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Danica Patrick cleared a path for her teammates in NASCARs new knockout qualifying that led to a Turner Scott Motorsports rout at Daytona International Speedway. Dylan Kwasniewski won the pole for his Nationwide Series debut -- the first rookie since Rusty Wallace in 1985 to win the pole at Daytona -- by following Patrick and Kyle Larson through traffic in Fridays qualifying session. The 18-year-old topped the speed chart with a lap at 192.078 mph in the rain-shortened qualifying session. Larson qualified second with a lap at 192.074 and Patrick was third as Turner Scotts cars went 1-2-3 for Saturdays race. "Danica did a fantastic job of leading us through the pack and getting us clean through there," said Kwasniewski, winner of the K&N East title last year and the K&N West title in 2012. "Being a rookie, it was hard for me to make the decisions on where to go," he said. "Danica did a fantastic job, she got us through clean and I was coming up to a sea of cars on the back straight and I was like, I have no idea how we are going to be able to get us through this. But she picked her way through perfectly, got us in the right possition and got us all three a great lap.ddddddddddddccould be a team out there." The qualifying session was the first for NASCARs new multicar, knockout-style format. All cars were on track for the opening 25-minute segment that was interrupted twice by rain. The fastest 24 cars were scheduled to advance to a second, 10-minute round, but it was rained out. There were as many as 30 cars on the track at one point, which made the one segment that was run far more entertaining than the traditional single-car runs NASCAR had used. Patrick acknowledged the session was worth watching, but could be interesting as the season progresses. "I think there are some times when its going to be a total disaster," Patrick said. "Like when we go to short tracks. I just cant imagine where its going to be like. (At Daytona), theres plenty of room, people can go wherever, theres many lanes, its all about momentum. But when you go to places like Bristol, Martinsville and even Phoenix. Short tracks in general are just going to be a really big challenge. And then youve got the mile-and-a-halves where youre just going a lot faster." cheap jerseys ' ' '
