Logan Couture scored two goals, and Martin Jones made 26 saves to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 4-0 victory against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at Saint Paul, Minn.
Joe Pavelski and Lukas Radil also scored for the Sharks, who won their season-high fifth straight game and are 7-1-0 in their past eight. Radim Simek and Tomas Hertl each had two assists and Radil had one.
Couture has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in his past 15 games.
It was the first shutout of the season for Jones and the 20th of his career. He was appearing in his 249th NHL game. Jones bounced back from a shaky start Sunday, when he was pulled after allowing three goals on four shots against Chicago.
Goaltender Devan Dubnyk stopped 21 of 24 shots for Minnesota, which went 2-2-0 on a four-game homestand.
The Wild got captain Mikko Koivu back after missing four games following a knee-on-knee hit Dec. 6 against Calgary. But Minnesota was without Matt Dumba, who leads NHL defensemen with 12 goals, because of an upper-body injury suffered Saturday against Calgary.
After a scoreless first period, Couture and Pavelski scored 29 seconds apart midway through the second.
Couture opened the scoring at 9:49. Radil controlled the puck behind the Minnesota net and sent a backhanded, no-look pass into the slot for Couture, who hammered a shot into the right side of the net.
Pavelski made it 2-0 at 10:18 on a breakaway, taking a long stretch pass from Hertl just outside the Minnesota blue line and skating in before beating Dubnyk high to the glove side.
Couture scored just 51 seconds into the third period, taking a pass from Hertl at the bottom of the faceoff circle and beating Dubnyk from a sharp angle.
Radil capped the scoring with an unassisted goal at 17:45.
The game featured just one power play, with San Jose getting blanked on that opportunity.
--Field Level Media
San Jose | Minnesota | |
Logan Couture 2 | Points | N/A |
Logan Couture 2 | Goals | N/A |
Tomas Hertl 2 | Assists | N/A |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Martin Jones 1.000 | Save Percentage | Devan Dubnyk .875 |
Martin Jones 26 | Saves | Devan Dubnyk 21 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
San Jose | 25 | 4 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 5 | 27 |
Minnesota | 26 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 7 | 25 |