VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 11 (UPI) -- Owen Nolan collected a goal and four assists and goaltender Evgeni Nabokov capped the scoring with an empty-netter as the San Jose Sharks defeated the
Vancouver Canucks, 7-4, to complete a home-and-home sweep Sunday night.
Nolan set a season high with five points and came within one of a career high for San Jose, which recorded a 2-0 blanking on Saturday and swept the four-game season series.
Nabokov made 26 saves, then became the first goalie to score a goal since Montreal's Jose Theodore on Jan. 2, 2001 against the New York Islanders. While the Sharks were on a power play and after Vancouver pulled goalie Peter Skudra, Nabokov hesitated momentarily before firing the puck from his own
crease, down the ice and into the right corner of the net.
Marco Sturm, defensman Gary Suter and Scott Thornton scored 98 seconds apart in the second period and Teemu Selanne's third goal in as many contests turned out to be the game-winner.
The Sharks have won eight of their last 11 games and moved
seven points ahead of second-place Los Angeles in the Pacific
Division.
Henrik Sedin, Brendan Morrison, defenseman Murray Baron and Jan
Hlavac got goals the Canucks, who fell four points out of the
final Western Conference playoff spot. They dropped to 1-4-1-2
in the last eight games and have not beaten San Jose since
December 30, 2000.
Cloutier allowed four goals on eight shots before being replaced
at 5:42 of the second period by Skudra, who stopped 13 shots.