Sharks Bite Into Kings, 5-2

March 27, 1998 / 2:31 AM EST / CBS/AP

It took Joe Murphy and Bryan Marchment only one game to make the San Jose Sharks resemble a playoff contender.

Murphy played a solid two-way game at right wing Thursday night in a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings after joining the team on Tuesday from St. Louis. Marchment also distinguished himself on defense in his first game since leaving the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"Basically all I want to bring to the table is to play hard every night, drive the guys and drive myself to get us over that hump and make the playoffs," Marchment said. "I was playing for a team that had no chance of being there, and it was hard to come to the rink every day. But now it seems like I have a purpose."

Murphy, whom the Sharks obtained for defenseman Todd Gill, missed 42 games this season with torn ligaments in his left wrist. Now he will try to stretch his streak of consecutive years in the playoffs to nine.

"I felt pretty good in the first period and thought I was skating good," Murphy said. "I was getting a little bit winded in the second period on some of my shifts, but I think that's just a matter of getting some playing time. I wasn't playing much in St. Louis, coming off the injury, so I think it should take a couple of games for me to be in high gear."

Jeff Friesen and Tony Granato triggered a four-goal first period with power-play goals as San Jose ended a four-game losing streak.

Dave Lowry and John MacLean also scored and Friesen added an empty-netter in the final minute to help the Sharks climb within three points of idle Edmonton for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. The Sharks have 11 games remaining, one more than the Oilers.

"It was an understatement to say we needed the win," MacLean said. "It gave us confidence to put four up on the board. Now we've got to refocus and take the same discipline and the same enthusiasm into Saturday's game at Dallas."

Craig Johnson scored his 16th goal and Jozef Stumpel added his 20th for the Kings, who spotted San Jose a 4-0 lead and matched their worst defensive period of the season. They also surrendered four goals in the second period of a 5-1 loss at Colorado on Dec. 23.

"We didn't hit anybody in the first period, and our style is to hit," Kings defenseman Philippe Boucher said. "We battled back, but it was too late."

The Sharks recorded their highest-scoring period of the season by connecting on four of their first 13 shots against Stephane Fiset, and ran their record to 14-0-0 when they've scored at least four times in a game. It also marked the first time in 19 games that the NHL's fifth-worst power play scored twice in the same game with the man advantage.

The Sharks scored first at the 6:10 mark. Dan Bylsma was off for ooking Granato when Friesen skated around defenseman Garry Galley in the right circle, swerved in front of Fiset and stuffed the puck past the goalie's outstretched right leg.

Granato made it 2-0 less than three minutes later, after Sean O'Donnell was penalized for tripping rookie Patrick Marleau. Granato converted a rebound for his 14th goal after Fiset made a stick save on Bill Houlder's slap shot from the right point.

Lowry got his third goal of the season at 14:33 of the period when he one-timed a pass from behind the net by Ron Sutter from 10 feet out and beat Fiset to the stick side through a screen by defenseman Rob Blake.

A sensational pass by Shawn Burr set up MacLean's 11th goal. After skating the puck into the zone and finding the middle clogged, Burr made a sharp left turn and then a blind cross-ice feed to a wide-open MacLean, who put the puck between Fiset's pads with 1:53 left in the period.

Johnson scored the Kings' first goal at the 2:15 mark of the second period with three seconds left on a roughing penalty against Marchment. Stumpel, who joined the Kings last August in a trade from Boston, reached the 20-goal mark for the second consecutive season after scoring a career-high 21 goals in 1996-97.

Friesen finished off the Kings with his 26th goal and ninth in his last 10 games against the Kings.