A third period rally wasn’t enough to save the San Jose Sharks from their first home loss of the season on Thursday.
The Sharks erased a two-goal deficit after an uneven start but allowed the winning goal with 4:21 to go in the third period in a 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames at SAP Center.
Matthew Tkachuk scored the winner for the Flames. With at last three Sharks on one side of the ice, Tkachuk took a pass from Michael Frolik and beat Martin Jones with a forehand to backhand move for his second goal of the game, as the Sharks’ record on home ice dropped to 4-1.
Brent Burns and Melker Karlsson scored goals 8:43 in the third period to tie the game 2-2.
Burns’ power play goal just 35 seconds into the third period gave the Sharks some life, as his slap shot from the point got through traffic and past Flames goalie Chad Johnson.
The Sharks tied the game with 10:42 to go in the third period, as Karlsson’s tip of a shot from the point by Marc-Edouard Vlasic bounced past Johnson for his second goal of the season.
Sharks coach Pete DeBoer tried to give his team a jolt as he juggled his lines to start the second period. Melker Karlsson was moved to the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski and Mikkel Boedker was placed on the third line with Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau.
It worked for a while as the Sharks outshot the Flames 8-5 in the first 11 minutes of the second, but the Flames struck twice in the final 3:28 of the second to take a 2-0 lead.
An uncovered Troy Brouwer one-timed a behind-the-back pass from Michael Ferland past Jones for the game’s opening goal. Just 93 seconds later, e Matthew Tkachuk found some space in the Sharks’ zone and beat Jones with a wrist shot through the legs.
The Sharks went 0-for-3 on the power play in a scoreless first period, collecting five shots in six minutes with the man advantage. The Sharks also killed the one power play they allowed without allowing a shot.
The Sharks figured to have a special teams advantage Thursday.
No team in the NHL has been shorthanded more often so far this season than the Flames, who’ve given up at least one power play goal in nine of 11 games. Coming into Thursday, the Sharks converted five of 12 power play chances in four home games and had killed 15-for-15 penalties over the last five games overall.
Thursday’s game was the fourth of the season for the Sharks against a Pacific Division after they beat Los Angeles on Oct. 12 and Anaheim on Oct. 25, both by 2-1 scores, and lost to Arizona 3-2 on Tuesday. The Sharks don’t play a division opponent again until Nov. 19, when they travel back to Glendale to face the Coyotes at the end of a two-week, six game road trip.
The Sharks had a 16-9-3 record against Pacific teams last season, something that might be tough to duplicate considering the division appears more balanced top-to-bottom.
“I think LA and Anaheim are going to be right there at the end of the day,” DeBoer said Thursday morning. “There was a lot of similar things happening last year. But ... you know those teams are going to be right there.
“Where the improvement’s been has been the bottom part, the Edmontons, the (Arizonas), the Calgarys, are either taking a big step or have the potential to take a big step. It’s going to be tight.”
Jones entered Thursday with a 4-0 record and a 1.00 goals against average and a .958 save percentage at SAP Center this season. Flames starting goalie Chad Johnson carried a 1-0-1 career record against San Jose from last season with the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sharks were well aware of how the Flames like to activate their defense, similar to their last opponent at home, the Nashville Predators.
“A lot of their offense starts with their back end, both on the rush and in the offensive zone,” DeBoer said of the Flames. “They remind me of us a little in the offensive zone. They pour a ton of shots to the net and really use their defensemen to kind of recover the rebounds and look for opportunities off that.”
A reason why the Sharks came into Thursday having won three of four, besides stellar goaltending from Jones, was the contributions from the all lines.
Third line center  Hertl and second line winger Joonas Donskoi combined for eight points over the last three games before Thursday, provided some valuable secondary scoring punch behind Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Brent Burns and Logan Couture.

RESULTS
Toronto     2     Buffalo           1
Philadelphia 3   NY Islanders   2 (SO)
NY Rangers 5    Edmonton      3
Washington 4    Winnipeg       3 (OT)
Ottawa       1     Vancouver     0
Boston       4     Tampa Bay    3 (SO)
Florida       4     New Jersey    3 (OT)
Chicago     4     Colorado        0
Dallas        6     St. Louis        2
Arizona      3     Nashville        2 (SO)
Los Angeles 3     Pittsburgh     2 (OT)
Calgary       3     San Jose       2