Martin Jones made 30 saves for his first shutout of the season and Rudolfs Balcers had a goal and two assists to lead the visiting San Jose Sharks to a 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night.

It was the 25th career shutout for Jones, who had his first seven of them as a backup to Jonathan Quick with the Kings from 2013-15. Jones, who was dealt in June 2015 to the Boston Bruins, then was flipped to the Sharks four days later, improved to 17-5-3 with two shutouts against his former team.

Tomas Hertl had a goal and an assist and Timo Meier also scored for San Jose, which won its third straight game and prevailed for the fifth time in seven. The Sharks also remained within three points of the fourth-place Arizona Coyotes, a 4-2 winner over the Anaheim Ducks, in the race for the final playoff spot in the West Division.

Calvin Petersen made 33 saves for the Kings. The two teams, who meet four times over a nine-day span, complete their back-to-back on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

San Jose took a 1-0 lead at the 2:57 mark of the first period on Hertl's 11th goal of the season. Hertl deflected Nikolai Knyzhov's shot past Petersen's glove and inside the left post.

The Sharks increased their lead to 2-0 midway through the second period on Meier's seventh goal of the season and first in 10 games. Hertl set up the score with a pass from behind the goal to Meier, who beat Petersen with a one-timer from the left circle into the top far corner.

The Kings challenged the goal for goaltender interference after videos showed that Balcers had shoved Drew Doughty into Petersen, but it was ruled that Petersen had time to reset after the collision and the goal was allowed to stand.

San Jose appeared to make it 3-0 midway through the third period when Dylan Gambrell one-timed a shot from the high slot past Petersen. However, the Kings successfully challenged that Gambrell was offside before the score.

The Kings pulled Petersen for an extra attacker with 2:30 to go, and Balcers sealed the win with an empty-netter with 27 seconds to go.

--Field Level Media