SAN JOSE -- Brent Burns called it as he saw it. The game wasn't pretty, but it was entertaining.

The Norris Trophy-winning defenseman scored only his second goal of the season 22 seconds into overtime as the San Jose Sharks beat Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 Thursday night at SAP Center.

The Sharks trailed 3-0 after the first period and 4-2 after the second period.

"Pretty good game for the fans probably, huh?" Burns said. "It's hockey. That game had everything in it. Tough start, great finish. You got to try to learn what we were struggling with, and it worked at the end. It felt good."

Joe Pavelski's pass set up Burns, and Joe Thornton picked up the second assist to move into No. 19 on the NHL's career scoring list with 1,410 points. Thornton scored a goal earlier in the game in addition to assisting on another.

"It started with Jumbo (Thornton), made a great play, coming to help in the defensive zone," Burns said. "And then Pavs obviously made just a great pass there, nice saucer over two sticks, and nice to see it go in."

After falling behind by three goals early, San Jose tied the game in the final period with its third and fourth goals on special teams.

"Our five-on-five play early was good. Our specialty teams hurt us tonight," Carolina coach Bill Peters. "We were minus-4 on special teams. It's tough to win when you do that."

Logan Couture scored his 14th of the season with a power-play strike at 8:31 of the third to bring the Sharks within 4-3 after defenseman Dylan DeMelo drew an interference penalty on Justin Faulk.

Then, Barclay Goodrow scored his second of the season with a short-handed tally -- San Jose's second of the game. He converted a breakaway at 11:56.

"I figured we would push back. We usually do," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "There's a lot of character in that room, a lot of proud guys. When we've been in that spot before, we usually push back, and we did tonight. Fortunate obviously to get a win. That's not the way you draw it up to start the game. We dug ourselves out of a hole. You got to win all kinds of ways in this league over 82 games."

Melker Karlsson got the Sharks on the board at 10:21 of the second period by completing a two-on-one, short-handed break to make the score 3-1.

The Hurricanes went back up by three when San Jose defensemen Paul Martin and Burns found themselves on the weak side, allowing Justin Williams to walk in from the left circle and assist Jeff Skinner on his 11th goal in front at 14:44.

San Jose converted on the power play as Thornton scored his fifth at 17:51 of the second with a wrist shot from the left circle. Tomas Hertl screened Carolina goalie Cam Ward, helping the Sharks pull within 4-2.

The Hurricanes struck for three goals in the span of four shots in the opening period.

Sebastian Aho scored at the side of the net at 9:01 as Sharks goalie Martin Jones skated out from his crease to challenge a possible point shot that turned into a pass.

Victor Rask scored his fifth of the season at 11:37 to cap a faceoff win by the Hurricanes in the Sharks' zone.

Aho scored his second of the period and seventh of the season by picking the top corner over Jones' left glove at 14:14.

"We did pretty good five-on-five. We just needed to create more opportunities," Aho said. "We have to play better. We need to go back to work and play our game for 60 minutes."

NOTES: D Paul Martin returned from a 24-game absence (lower-body injury) and paired with D Brent Burns on San Jose's back end. ... San Jose LW Melker Karlsson returned after missing two games with a laceration. ... Sharks LW Joonas Donskoi (ribs) went on injured reserve to open a roster spot for Martin. ... San Jose also was without F Mikkel Boedker (lower body) and D Tim Heed (upper body). ... Carolina D Klas Dahlbeck and D Phillip Di Giuseppe replaced D Josh Jooris and D Haydn Fleury, who were both healthy scratches. ... The Hurricanes make their third stop of a six-game road trip on Saturday in Los Angeles. ... San Jose continues its stretch of playing three times in four nights with a home game Saturday against Ottawa.