Hockey: Sharks look to finally break through

Logan Couture converted on his first career shootout attempt to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 3-2 victory Saturday night over the Phoenix Coyotes that kept their hopes alive for the top seed in the Western Conference.

After being unable to protect a 2-1 lead in the third period, the Sharks earned the crucial two points when Couture scored in the fifth round of the shootout in San Jose's final game of the regular season.

"I didn't expect to shoot with all the talent we have on this team," Couture said. "When they put me out there I was confident I was going to score. I'm glad I did score so it looked like he made the right decision."

That gave the Sharks 113 points on the season, two more than Chicago for the most in the West. The Blackhawks have one game remaining and can clinch the top seed in the playoffs by winning at home Sunday against Detroit because they have won more games than San Jose.

"We came into the season wanting to make sure we were in the playoffs," captain Rob Blake said. "We accomplished that and we gave ourselves a chance to be first in the West. We'll see what happens. We've done that part. We know we're competing this week in the first round and we go from there."

San Jose (51-20-11) took the lead in the game twice, with the Coyotes responding each time.

Devin Setoguchi scored his 20th and Patrick Marleau marked his career-high 44th, a goal originally credited to Dany Heatley.

Lee Stempniak and Matthew Lombardi scored for Phoenix (50-25-7), which was already guaranteed the fourth seed in the West. Stempniak scored 14 goals in 18 games for the Coyotes after coming over from Toronto in a trade.

"It's a fine line," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "You want to come out and make sure you don't lose anybody in a meaningless game, but at the same time you've still got to be competitive."

Joe Pavelski and Ryan Clowe put the Sharks two goals up in the shootout, but Lauri Korpikoski and Radim Vrbata beat Evgeni Nabokov.

After Dan Boyle missed for the Sharks, Phoenix turned to defenceman Adrian Aucoin, but he could not beat Nabokov.

Aucoin, who had never attempted a shootout before this season, had been successful in six of eight tries heading into Saturday's game.

Phoenix played an NHL-high 21 shootout games, winning 14. The Coyotes went beyond regulation in 27 of 82 games.