SAN JOSE, Calif. — The defense tightened, the bottom lines contributed and the San Jose Sharks put together the kind of complete performance that was lacking in two lackluster losses earlier in the week.
Now they need to figure out how to duplicate this performance down the stretch if they want to make it back to the postseason.
Daniel Winnik scored his first goal with San Jose to give the Sharks’ playoff hopes a needed boost with a 2-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
“When you’re in stressful situations it can slow you down, it can make you lethargic, it can make you tired if you allow it to,” coach Todd McLellan said. “But if you play free and put it aside and accept the challenge, then you’re a little bit faster and you’re a little bit fresher. I thought we had that tonight. We didn’t have that in the last two games.”
Joe Pavelski scored early in the first period to let San Jose play from ahead and Winnik added insurance early in the third when he ended his 43- game drought without a goal as the Sharks showed much more life than they had against Anaheim and Los Angeles earlier in the week.
Antti Niemi made 16 saves as the Sharks allowed a season low 17 shots.
The Bruins, coming off an 8-0 win Monday night against Toronto, didn’t get on the board until Zdeno Chara scored with 4:15 remaining to cut the deficit to 2- 1. They couldn’t get any more and dropped their fourth straight road game — their longest skid since December 2009. Boston remained three points ahead of idle Ottawa for the Northeast Division lead with one game in hand.
The Sharks had lost two straight and eight of 11 to put their playoff hopes in peril after making it all the way to the Western Conference finals the past two seasons. They remained in 10th place in the race for one of the eight playoff spots, but trail Dallas and Colorado by one point and are two points behind division-leading Los Angeles and Phoenix.
“The first half of the game we didn’t generate enough in the offensive zone,” Chara said. “We were playing a lot on the outside. We were better as the game went on and started creating traffic and putting a lot of pucks on the net. The first half we did not play up to our potential and it was still a close game. But to win, you can’t rely on playing well for 30 to 40 minutes, you have to go all out for 60 minutes.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
