San Jose Sharks 5, Nashville Predators 3 (Game 60)

This was the Sharks' (58-1-0) fourth meeting of the season against the Predators (29-21-8). The Sharks had won each of the previous 3 contests this season, shutting out the Predators in their last two meetings. 

In their first meeting of the season, at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Scott Walker and Greg Johnson scored for the Predators while Todd Harvey, Alexander Korolyuk, Alyn McCauley and Patrick Marleau all scored for the Sharks in a 4-2 victory. The Sharks outshot the Predators 30-27 to get their 20th win in 21 games. 

​The second meeting in Nashville saw the Predators outshoot the Sharks 29-25, but outstanding goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov kept the Predators off of the score sheet. Niko Dimitrakos opened the scoring late in the 1st period, Vincent Damphousse scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway in the 2nd period, and Scott Thornton scored two goals in a 3rd period that was capped off by a last-minute Mike Ricci goal to give the Sharks a 5-0 victory on the road. 

The third meeting of the season between the two teams, again in Nashville, saw Teemu Selanne open the scoring with a powerplay goal late in the first period. Patrick Marleau added a goal in the 2nd period and Brad Stuart and Selanne added back-to-back powerplay goals to give the Sharks a 4-0 lead. In the 3rd period, Teemu Selanne completed his hat trick in the 3rd period and Adam Graves registered his 300th career assist ​to give the Sharks a 5-0 victory. The Sharks outshot the Predators 39-20, converted on 3/9 powerplays, and killed both Nashville powerplays to get their 52nd win of the season. 

The fourth meeting of the season between the Sharks and Predators proved to be the most difficult for the Sharks. Vladimir Orszagh opened the scoring for Nashville early in the 1st period, but Vincent Damphousse scored to tie the game for San Jose. David Legwand then scored for Nashville to take a 2-1 lead, only to be tied again on a shorthanded goal by Marco Sturm for the Sharks. Dan McGillis added another shorthanded goal for the Sharks to take a 3-2 lead, but Vladimir Orszagh scored again to tie the game at 3-3 as the 1st period ended. The Sharks allowed a team-high 3 goals in the first period for the first time all season, but they held the Predators off of the scoresheet for the remainder of the game. Brad Stuart scored the (eventual) game-winning goal in the 2nd period to give the Sharks a 4-3 lead, and Vincent Damphousse tallied an empty-net goal to give the Sharks a 5-3 win. Nevertheless, the Predators outshot the Sharks 38-33, becoming one of only a handful of teams to outshoot the Sharks in multiple games this season. 

The Sharks will next travel to Chicago to face a Blackhawks team that they are also undefeated against this year, going 3-0 overall.