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The Chicago Blackhawks staved off a late rally to record a 6-5 shoot-out win over the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks.

Patrick Kane (pictured) and Jonathan Toews scored in the shootout for the Blackhawks, who wasted an early three-goal lead to emerge with a win that gives them sole possession of fourth spot in the Western Conference with 10 games remaining.

"It was a huge win at the end of the day," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "It looked like we were on our way (when we were up 4-1), but they're a dangerous team and their top guys were dangerous tonight."

Andrew Ladd scored twice in regulation and Dave Bolland added three assists for Chicago (39-22-11), while San Jose winger Devin Setoguchi also found the net on two occasions in his team's first loss in four games.

Setoguchi's snap shot at 14:53 in the third period pulled the Sharks (48-14-11) back to 5-4, setting the stage for Joe Thornton's game-tying wrister with 2:08 remaining.

After a scoreless overtime period, San Jose's Joe Pavelski and Jeremy Roenick both missed opportunities in the shootout against Chicago netminder Nikolai Khabibulin, who finished with 23 saves.

Khabibulin recorded his second straight win after the veteran missed 14 games earlier in the year with a groin injury.

The win did not come easy for the home team as San Jose cut into a 4-1 deficit with consecutive goals by Jamie McGinn and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

Ladd's second goal put Chicago 5-3 ahead before the Sharks fought back in the closing minutes.

"We're happy with the two points but not happy giving up the lead," Ladd said. "We're looking forward to getting back on track. We've been learning the whole year about our team and it's going to be good moving forward."

Evgeni Nabokov made 27 saves for the Sharks.

More results:

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Carolina 2-1 Ottawa

NY Islanders 2-6 Minnesota

Pittsburgh 2-0 Calgary

Colorado 2-7 Anaheim

Reuters