Melker Karlsson and Joonas Donskoi scored goals 39 seconds apart midway through the third period, and Martin Jones made 36 saves to pick up his 20th win of the season as the San Jose Sharks rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Tomas Hertl also had a goal and an assist for San Jose, which won its fifth straight game and seventh in its past eight to leapfrog the Golden Knights into second place in the Pacific Division. It also was the 1,000th win in franchise history for San Jose.

Jon Merrill and Tomas Nosek scored goals for Vegas, which had a seven-game winning streak snapped and lost in regulation at home for the first time since a 4-1 loss to St. Louis on Nov. 16. Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 24 saves.

The Golden Knights, who scored four first-period goals in a 6-0 victory over the Sharks in the first meeting between the two teams on Nov. 24, needed just 94 seconds to take a 1-0 lead on Nosek's sixth goal of the season.

Ryan Reaves slapped a shot from the right circle that Jones stopped, but the rebound caromed into the middle of the left circle, where Nosek slapped it inside the near post.

Hertl tied it at the 14:05 mark of the second period with an unassisted goal. He intercepted a clearing pass by Nate Schmidt in the neutral zone and then skating in and firing a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle that clanged in off the far post for his 16th goal of the season.

Merrill put Vegas back ahead 2-1 early in the third period with his first goal of the season and first in 54 games. He snapped a wrist shot from inside the blue line past a Ryan Carpenter screen and inside the right post.

However, San Jose came back to take a 3-2 lead as Karlsson scored on a rebound of a Brent Burns shot into a wide open right side of the net at the 7:24 mark of the third. Donskoi then had a shot by Hertl bounce in off his upper body for his eighth goal in seven games.

Vegas, which went on the power play when Brenden Dillon was called for slashing with 3:44 to go, pulled Fleury with 2:49 left for a six-on-four advantage for over a minute but managed just three shots on net.

San Jose defenseman Erik Karlsson, coming in off back-to-back three-assist games against Edmonton and Los Angeles, failed to score, snapping his 14-game streak with at least one assist.

--Field Level Media