Kings blow 4-goal lead, rally to beat Sharks 6-4

LOS ANGELES — Teddy Purcell scored the tiebreaking goal from behind San Jose’s goal line with 5:10 to play, and the Los Angeles Kings blew a four-goal lead before holding off the Sharks 6-4 Tuesday night.

Anze Kopitar had a goal and two assists, and Jonathan Quick made 25 saves for Los Angeles in a wild meeting between the Pacific Division rivals.

After the Kings chased Evgeni Nabokov while taking their huge early lead, Devin Setoguchi scored two of San Jose’s four power-play goals in less than 20 minutes.

Dany Heatley capped a three-point night with San Jose’s tying goal just 26 seconds before Purcell ricocheted in an improbable shot from the corner off backup goalie Thomas Greiss’ back skate.

Ryan Smyth scored his first goal for Los Angeles, which earned its first win of the season and just its fifth home win over the Sharks in the defending division champions’ last 16 visits.

Wayne Simmonds and Jack Johnson also scored, and Davis Drewiske put his first NHL goal into an empty net with 1:19 to play. Michal Handzus had two assists for the Kings, who lost their season opener Saturday to Phoenix with Quick giving up six goals.

Joe Thornton had three assists and captain Rob Blake had a goal and an assist for the Sharks, who took two discouraging losses on their season-opening three-game road trip.

Last season’s Presidents’ Cup winners made a major roster overhaul after their first-round playoff loss to Anaheim, and while the new Sharks bring offensive punch, their defensive unfamiliarity showed. San Jose also played without second-line center Joe Pavelski, who has a lower-body injury.

Nabokov made 16 saves, but gave up a hefty goal total for the second time already this season. When Kopitar somehow sneaked a long deflected puck into the top near corner of Nabokov’s net from near the blue line late in the second period, Sharks coach Todd McLellan replaced Nabokov with Greiss, the German rookie making his first NHL appearance since March 20, 2008.

Setoguchi and Blake trimmed Los Angeles’ lead to one goal with scores during Alexander Frolov’s double minor for high-sticking Setoguchi.

NOTES: After San Jose RW Brad Staubitz knocked down Drewiske with a dangerous check late in the second period, San Jose’s Jody Shelley and Los Angeles’ Raitis Ivanans had a vicious fight featuring several unblocked haymakers by both enforcers. … Staubitz was in the Sharks’ lineup for the first time this season. With Pavelski out, every healthy Sharks player was in uniform. … Blake, the Sharks’ new captain in his second season with the club, was booed every time he touched the puck by the crowd in half-full Staples Center.