VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 13 (UPI) -- Joe Thornton had four assists, including one in overtime, helping the San Jose Sharks lock up a playoff spot with a 5-4 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
The Sharks became the sixth Western Conference team to seal a spot in the NHL playoffs. Vancouver is in ninth place, 1 point out of the current playoff standings with two games to play.
Thornton assisted on the first two and last two San Jose goals Wednesday and has 91 assists on the season. His third led to a score-tying goal by Scott Hannan with 4:03 to play in regulation. The final one came 34 seconds into overtime when he found Christian Ehrhoff, who was able to beat Vancouver goalie Alex Auld.
The Canucks scored twice on six first-period shots at San Jose goalie Vesa Toskala. The goals, by Mattias Ohlund and Markus Naslund, came on power plays. The Sharks answered with goals by Grant Stevenson and Nils Ekman -- both off assists by Thornton -- to tie the score 2-2 before the first period was over.
Milan Michalek gave San Jose a second-period lead but the Canucks got goals from Daniel Sedin in the second period and Bryan Allen early in the third for a 4-3 advantage.
