Local News

SAN JOSE (AP) ― Ryane Clowe scored two goals, Rob Blake had four assists and the San Jose Sharks improved the NHL's best record to 17-3-1 with a 7-2 victory over the road-weary Washington Capitals on Saturday night.

Joe Thornton and captain Patrick Marleau each had a goal and an assist for San Jose, which improved to 11-0-1 at the Shark Tank with yet another dominant puck-possession performance. Mike Grier scored with 52.3 seconds to play, allowing San Jose to match its highest goal total of the season.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Devon Setoguchi also added a goal and an assist as the Sharks shook the rink rust from a four-day layoff in plenty of time to finish the Capitals, who haven't beaten San Jose in this century.

Brian Boucher stopped 19 shots in his seventh straight start for the Sharks, and Dan Boyle took the overall league scoring lead among defensemen with three assists, giving him 19 points. San Jose leads the NHL in shots per game by a fairly wide margin, but needed just 28 to blow out the Capitals in a meeting of division leaders.

Tom Poti and Tomas Fleischmann scored in the Capitals' third game in four nights in California during a tough five-game road swing. Goalie Brent Johnson's goals-against average took a beating, as he made no particularly big stops against the Sharks' three relentless scoring lines.

Washington hadn't been to San Jose in nearly three years, but the Capitals haven't won in the Bay Area since 1993. They've lost 11 straight overall to the Sharks.

Sergei Fedorov returned to the Capitals' lineup after missing seven games with a sprained ankle, but left wing Alexander Semin and defenseman Mike Green are still out with injuries. Washington would have needed everybody to keep up with speedy San Jose on the first anniversary of the Caps' hiring of coach Bruce Boudreau, who has transformed an underachieving club into one of the Eastern Conference's best.

Longtime San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov also was back in uniform as Boucher's backup for the first time since getting hurt Nov. 6 during a shootout against St. Louis. The Sharks have been able to be cautious with their Vezina Trophy finalist because of Boucher, who is 7-1-1 this season with significantly better statistics than Nabokov.

Marleau scored the Sharks' opening goal midway through the first period with a snappy wrist shot on a pass from Boyle. Clowe then got credit for his 10th goal when Washington defenseman Shaone Morrisonn couldn't handle a skittering puck behind Johnson in the crease, accidentally knocking it home while trying to save it.

Setoguchi added a score late in the period, giving San Jose three goals on five shots in the first period.

Poti scored when he dived into Boucher's crease to tip home a loose shot by Matt Bradley, a former Sharks draft pick who spent his first three NHL seasons in San Jose. But Thornton scored his fifth goal of the season with a remarkable tip of Vlasic's power-play shot from the slot, and Vlasic then scored on a long shot through traffic during 4-on-4 play in the final minute of the second period.

Clowe added a power-play goal in the third period before Grier's last goal on a setup from Jeremy Roenick.

Notes: Grier returned from a two-game absence with a lower-body injury. ... Donald Brashear won a clear decision over Jody Shelley in a first-period fight between NHL heavyweights. ... Washington finishes its road trip Monday at Minnesota, while San Jose doesn't play again until Wednesday at home against Chicago.

(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)