SAN JOSE, Calif. — When Patrick Marleau scored a fluky overtime goal to give the San Jose Sharks a 3-0 series lead, the Los Angeles Kings easily could have moped around and started looking ahead to the offseason.

They ended up putting themselves in the hockey history books instead.

Anze Kopitar scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and Jonathan Quick made 39 saves to cap the Kings’ historic comeback from three games down for a 5-1 victory over the Sharks in Game 7 of their first-round series Wednesday night.

“Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves and taking it that way we were just more determined to get that back,” said star defenseman Drew Doughty, who tied Game 7 early in the second. “We knew that eventually that some luck would start turning our way and it did.”

A lot more than luck went Los Angeles’ way as they completely took over the series, outscoring San Jose 16-3 over the final 3½ games to join Toronto (1942), the New York Islanders (1975) and Philadelphia (2010) as the only NHL teams to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.

“Fortunately, for us, we had our game going in time that it wasn’t too late,” forward Justin Williams said. “Four in row. We’ll make a note not to do that again.”

The Kings now advance to another California showdown in the second-round with the first Freeway Playoff against the Anaheim Ducks beginning Saturday night.

“This is something we’re all going to remember for the rest of our lives,” Doughty said. “We’re not done yet. We have to move on. We’re probably going to start in a few days now. This will be in our heads tonight. That was an unbelievable feeling.”

Tyler Toffoli, Tanner Pearson and Dustin Brown also scored for the Kings, who silenced the normally frenzied crowd at the Shark Tank with a dominating third period.

But the series started to turn much earlier. The Kings lost the first two games, getting outscored 13-5 as Quick looked pedestrian.

They played a strong Game 3 before losing on Marleau’s deflected goal in overtime and then took the series over midway through Game 4 as they finally eliminated the odd-man chances that fueled San Jose’s attack early, got stellar play from Quick to shut down the Sharks’ power play and got big performances from stalwarts Kopitar, Doughty and Williams, as well as rookies like Toffoli and Pearson.

“When you’ve gone to the top of the mountain with the same group of guys it’s a little bit easier when you’re at the bottom to come up,” Brown said. “That’s what a lot of this team is about, our guys who have stuck together and played together for years.”

Matt Irwin scored the lone goal and Antti Niemi made 25 saves for the Sharks, who added perhaps their most bitter playoff disappointment to a history of them. San Jose has the second most regular-season wins in the NHL the past 10 seasons but has never made it past the conference finals.

Wild 5, Avalanche 4

DENVER — Nino Niederreiter scored his second goal of the game at 5:02 of overtime and Ilya Bryzgalov made a big save filling in for an injured Darcy Kuemper, leading Minnesota to the victory in Game 7.

It’s the first playoff series win for the Wild since 2003.

Minnesota trailed 4-3 before Jared Spurgeon scored on a nifty play with 2:27 left in regulation. Spurgeon waited for a clear look at the goal, and then shot it over Semyon Varlamov’s shoulder and off the left post.

Mikko Koivu and Dany Heatley had the other goals for the Wild, who will face the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in the second round.

Nick Holden, Jamie McGinn, Paul Stastny and Erik Johnson scored for the Avalanche.

Patrick Roy’s first season on the bench for the Avalanche ended the same way his Hall of Fame goaltending career did — with a loss to the Wild in Game 7. Roy surrendered the winning overtime goal in 2003.

Rangers 2, Flyers 1

NEW YORK — Daniel Carcillo and Benoit Pouliot scored second-period goals, and the New York Rangers advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 on Wednesday night.

The Rangers shook off a 5-2 thrashing in Philadelphia on Tuesday and knocked out the Flyers about 24 hours later, improving to 6-0 in Game 7s at Madison Square Garden. New York will face another Metropolitan Division rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the next round starting on Friday.

Henrik Lundqvist made 26 saves, allowing only a third-period goal to Jason Akeson 4:32 into the final frame. He protected the one-goal lead at 7:25 when he made an awkward save against Flyers captain Claude Giroux.

The Rangers mobbed Lundqvist after the final buzzer, while the Flyers consoled their goalie Steve Mason.

Mason was sharp in stopping 31 shots.