Sharks Keep On Rolling

Joe Thornton’s knack for finding teammates with timely passes is perhaps the biggest reason the San Jose Sharks are back in the Western Conference playoff picture.

Thornton got the puck to Tom Preissing, who scored the winner 1:24 into overtime Sunday night from the high slot as the Sharks beat the Blackhawks, 5-4, at Chicago to win for the eighth time in their last 11 games and move past the Kings into ninth place in the Western Conference.

San Jose also improved to 28-12-6 since acquiring Thornton nearly four months ago from Boston.

“He knows where you want the puck and he gets it there,” Preissing said. “Basically I did the easy part. He did all the work.”

Thornton finished with three assists, giving him six in two days. He also had three Saturday against Minnesota while eclipsing the franchise record of 52 for a season.

Kyle Calder’s power-play goal with 1:12 left in regulation tied it for Chicago at 4-4.

Montreal 6, Pittsburgh 5 -- Chris Higgins and Alex Kovalev each had two goals at Pittsburgh to help the Canadiens avoid a season sweep by the Penguins.

Montreal, which was 0-3 against the NHL’s worst team, has won three in a row and four of five to move into a seventh-place tie with New Jersey in the Eastern Conference. Saku Koivu had three assists for the Canadiens.

Dallas 3, Calgary 2 -- Mike Modano set a career franchise record for power-play goals with his 135th at Dallas, and Niko Kapanen added a short-handed goal to send the Stars to their 10th victory in 12 games.

Marty Turco stopped 17 shots for Dallas.

Edmonton 4, Colorado 3 -- Sergei Samsonov scored the lone shootout goal on the first attempt in the tiebreaker to help the Oilers prevail at Denver.

The Oilers’ Dwayne Roloson stopped Antti Laaksonen, Milan Hejduk and Joe Sakic in the shootout after making 31 saves in regulation and overtime.

Toronto 4, New Jersey 3 -- Jean-Sebastien Aubin made 36 saves in his season debut at East Rutherford, N.J., in the Maples Leafs’ victory.