NHL

Niemi gave up a first period goal to Jeff Carter and a second period power play goal to Drew Doughty as both shots beat him on the long side but he allowed the Sharks to come back from a 2-0 deficit to lead 3-2 before the fiasco in the final two minutes. Niemi is now 4-2 as he stopped 27 shots. His GAA in the playoffs rose to 2.24 while his save percentage is now .921. He will have to play better with the series headed to San Jose as the Sharks are down 2-0.

Just an FYI.

The incident happened with 4:35 left in the middle stanza. Vlasic was hit dangerously into the boards as Carter received a two minute penalty for charging and Vlasic went to the dressing room. Stay tuned as the Sharks will have trouble on the blueline if Vlasic is unable to return.

Torres was assessed a minor penalty for charging on the play. He is a repeat offender and there was an injury on hit to Stoll, which also factored into the length of the suspension. He will be eligible to return if the Sharks can defeat the Kings and advance into the third round of the playoffs.

He will skate alongside Bracken Kearns and Andrew Desjardins in his second outing of the 2012 playoffs.

Joe Pavelski has been promoted to San Jose's top line, so Gomez will play between Tommy Wingels and James Sheppard. He has no points and six shots in three playoff appearances.

Torres will have an in-person hearing in New York on Thursday because of an illegal check to the head of Los Angeles' Jarret Stoll, but Brown wasn't speaking exclusively about Torres' suspension history. "hat's one of those things where as much as he's been suspended, he's had a lot of really clean, hard hits, and you need to be aware of that," Brown said. "He likes to come off that weak side, and I think everyone around the league knows that. It's just bringing awareness to it. On the second goal, he came down on me and I knew he was coming, so I just gave it low-to-high, and it ends up being in their net. So that's the type of plays you need to make and try to use his aggressiveness to our advantage." It's entirely possible that Torres will be suspended for the remainder of the Sharks' second-round series against the Los Angeles Kings.