Phil Kessel powers Coyotes past Sharks

Phil Kessel scored two goals and Oliver Ekman-Larsson added three assists to lead the host Arizona Coyotes to a 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday in Glendale, Ariz.

Sharks forward Ryan Donato opened up scoring in the first period by tipping in a Timo Meier shot on the power play for an early 1-0 lead. But Kessel evened things with a power-play goal off Ekman-Larsson's assist with 7:29 left in the first period. Barrett Hayton gave Arizona a 2-1 lead with 5:19 remaining in the period, but San Jose tied the game 46 seconds later on Meier's unassisted goal.

Kessel gave his team a 3-2 lead when he tipped in Ekman-Larsson's shot from the blue line 5:13 into the period. Jakob Chychrun doubled the lead when he blasted a shot past Sharks goaltender Martin Jones off an assist from Derick Brassard to give Arizona a 4-2 advantage with 11:04 left in the second period.

Clayton Keller added to Arizona's lead with a wrist shot at the 2:39 mark in the third period, with Brassard and Ekman-Larsson assisting on the play.

The three-goal deficit caused Sharks coach Bob Boughner to pull Jones in favor of Devan Dubnyk.

San Jose pulled to within 5-3 on a power-play goal by Tomas Hertl, who scored off assists by Erik Karlsson and Meier, with under a minute remaining.

Antti Raanta stopped 31 of 34 shots for Arizona, while Jones saved 19 of 24 shots he faced and Dubnyk turned away both shots he saw.

San Jose won the opener of the two-game opening series 4-3 in a shootout this past Thursday.

The Sharks continue their eight-game road trip on Monday against the St. Louis Blues, while Arizona travels to Las Vegas to face the Golden Knights on the same day.

--Field Level Media