Kelly scores late goal to lift Senators past the Sharks

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Erik Karlsson enjoys getting a break every now and then, and Chris Kelly likes getting a lucky bounce every once in a while. It all worked to Ottawa’s advantage, which extended a nice streak.

Kelly scored with 1:06 remaining and Jean-Gabriel Pageau added an empty-net goal, giving the Ottawa Senators a 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night.

“It was just a safe play,” Kelly said. “The puck was bouncing around a lot. It bounced past the first defender and then got to the second defender’s skate, and I just tried to tip it through and it was in.”

Mark Stone and Erik Karlsson also scored for the Senators, who beat the Sharks for a fifth straight time. They’ve won three straight in San Jose for the first time ever.

“Sticks hit, the puck pops up and it’s a weird goal,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “Sometimes it works like that. We had more than enough looks to get into it.”

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Logan Couture and Brent Burns scored for the Sharks, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.

Mike Condon stopped 35 of 37 shots for the Sens. The Sharks outshot Ottawa 18-4 in the third period, and Martin Jones allowed three goals on 16 shots overall.

“That was an emotional game, a lot of fun, the kind of game you like to play,” Condon said. “We wanted to play better with the lead but we kept them at bay and showed a lot of resilience there. We’ll take the two points and get out of here as quick as we can.”

The Senators struck quickly, recording a power-play goal less than four minutes into the contest. Mike Hoffman tossed the puck toward the net and it bounced off Burns’ skate. Burns lost sight of it and Stone picked it up, firing past everybody into the net.

Hoffman has a point in six straight games and in eight of nine since missing a pair of contests with an injury.

Karlsson made it 2-0 with a goal about four minutes later. Sharks defender Brendan Dillon tried clearing it from in front of the net, but Karlsson was right there to fire it to the high glove side.

“We caught a break there. Even down 2-0, I think they did a tremendous job in keeping us in our zone,” Karlsson said. “Condon made some big saves at the right time. We should be happy to be coming away with a late goal the way we did. We did all we could, and they played a terrific game, too.”

Couture got the Sharks on the board with a power-play goal midway through the second period. The Senators cleared the puck two straight possessions before Pavelski rushed to the net and then slipped the puck to an open Couture, who has six goals in his past eight games, about 10 feet away for the score.

“You take a penalty, they get a lucky bounce and they’re up two, Couture said. “It was a disappointing loss. There were a lot of things we could have done better.”

Burns tied the score 6:30 into the third period, methodically working the puck to set up a shot that squeezed past Condon to the glove side.

NOTES: Senators D Marc Methot missed his fourth straight contest with a lower body injury. … Stone has eight points in his last six games. … Karlsson has nine points in his last five games. … The Sharks recalled F Kevin LeBlanc and D Mirco Mueller. Mueller was a healthy scratch. … Sharks D Paul Martin recorded his 300th NHL point with an assist on Burns’ goal.

UP NEXT:

Senators: Continue a four-game trip at the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.

Sharks: Travel to Anaheim for a game Friday night and then return home to face Carolina on Saturday night.

Rick Eymer, The Associated Press