Logan Couture and Evander Kane each netted one goal and one assist and goaltender Aaron Dell sparkled in net as the San Jose Sharks won for the first time in seven games with a home-ice 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
It's the first win for interim coach Bob Boughner since he took over the bench duties from the fired Pete DeBoer during San Jose's losing skid -- four straight defeats in regulation and a 0-5-1 slide.
Dell made 33 saves and was especially strong in the first half-dozen minutes of the third period, when he denied J.T. Miller, Tanner Pearson and Brock Boeser on chances caused by his team's turnovers.
Tomas Hertl opened the scoring just before the midway point of the first period in big part due to a great pass from Joe Thornton. As Hertl went to the net, Thornton took his time to find a passing lane and sent a cross-crease pass that Hertl buried for his second goal in as many games and 12th of the season.
With the Canucks pressing in the first portion of the third period, Timo Meier doubled the San Jose lead with his 11th goal of the campaign. Erik Karlsson's long pass sent his teammates on an odd-man rush that ended when Meier converted a give-and-go with Kane by one-timing a shot from the bottom of the right circle at the 7:09 mark of the third period.
Jake Virtanen put the Canucks on the board 48 seconds later. Thanks to a broken play, Virtanen gained the puck in the left circle and snapped a shot inside the far post for his eighth goal of the season.
The goals didn't end there. Kane's empty-net tally with 81 seconds remaining in regulation held up as the game winner because Vancouver's Bo Horvat scored with 29 seconds left on the clock.
Couture rounded out the scoring with another empty-net tally with eight seconds left.
Jacob Markstrom stopped 23 shots for the Canucks, who have lost two of three games.
--Field Level Media
Vancouver | San Jose | |
Bo Horvat 1 | Points | Logan Couture 2 |
Bo Horvat 1 | Goals | Logan Couture 1 |
Brock Boeser 1 | Assists | Logan Couture 1 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Jacob Markstrom .920 | Save Percentage | Aaron Dell .943 |
Jacob Markstrom 23 | Saves | Aaron Dell 33 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Vancouver | 35 | 2 | 0-3 | 2-2 | 6 | 35 |
San Jose | 27 | 4 | 0-2 | 3-3 | 8 | 21 |