Niemi (illness) is expected to return to the net Friday against the Coyotes, Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area reports. With the illness sapping him of energy, Niemi has ceded the last three starts to backup Alex Stalock. Niemi seems to have made a fair amount of progress over the last couple of days, and it now sounds like Stalock might have actually acquired the bug. So long as the Sharks have one healthy goalie, there probably won't be a need for the team to bring an extra netminder aboard from the AHL ranks.