NEWARK, N.J. _ Sharks defenseman Brent Burns took two strides toward the New Jersey Devils net and snapped a wrist shot that went off the cross-bar and straight down behind goalie Cory Schneider.
Just over five minutes later, Burns did it again, as he took a stride toward the middle of the ice and found the net with a wrist shot from a few feet inside the blue line past a screened Schneider.
Burns' two goals on Sunday _ his 23rd and 24th of the season _ continued his remarkable season and highlighted a second period outburst that led to a 4-1 Sharks win over the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center.
"His shot is unbelievable," Sharks forward Logan Couture said of Burns. "The ability he has to get his shot through, there's nobody in the league that does it better."
Joe Thornton also scored and Kevin Labanc, in his return to his hometown area, had two assists as the Sharks snapped their four-game winless skid and ended their four-game road trip on a positive note.
Sharks goalie Martin Jones made 21 saves as he rebounded from being pulled after the first period of Thursday's game against the Boston Bruins when he allowed three goals on 12 shots. Tomas Hertl added an empty net goal with 1:24 to go. The Sharks outshot the Devils, 38-22
The Sharks are now five points up on the Anaheim Ducks and seven up on the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division, actually increasing their lead in the last week despite going 0-1-2 on the first three games of the trip. Before the Sharks left on Monday, they had a three-point lead over the Ducks and Oilers.
"We feel like we've played a little better than our record so far on the trip and we wanted the two points," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. "We wanted some separation between us Anaheim and Edmonton and the guys got the job done."
Burns was already thought of as the favorite to win the Norris Trophy this season as he came into Sunday with 22 goals and 57 points, 12 more points than the NHL's second-leading scoring defenseman, Erik Karlsson of Ottawa.
Burns also has to be considered for the Hart Trophy. Not only is the most dominant player in his position and as valuable to the Sharks as any NHL player is to their respective teams, but, with 59 points, he's also just two points back of league-leader Connor McDavid.
"It's every night," Thornton said. "If you watch him every night, he's the best player on the ice every night, it doesn't matter who we play. He just does it night in and night out. It's very impressive to watch."
A defenseman hasn't won the scoring title since Bobby Orr won it in 1974-75, and Burns has repeatedly shown that he's not going away.
Is he looking to catch McDavid?
"Nope. Not really," Burns said.
Does he look at the league leaders?
"You look at everything," Burns said. "You're looking at other guys on the team like the other team we're playing, you're looking. We hear about it from you guys all the time about stats and everything, so you're aware of it."
Thornton scored his second goal at the 11:22 mark with Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Labanc getting assists.
The Sharks outshot the Devils 19-2 in a scoreless first period as they went 0-for-4 in 5:44 of power play time, including 1:42 with a two-man advantage.
The Sharks wanted to keep that up in the second period and add some traffic in front of Schneider. Burns' second goal at the 7:46 was one example.
"The talk is just you've got to come out and you've got to put that effort in again," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. "You need another 20-shot period. If Schneids stands on his head again for them, it's going to take 50 shots probably."
New Jersey scored its only goal on its first shot of the game, as PA Parenteau scored his 13th of the season at the 11:42 mark.
Logan Couture was back in the lineup after he missed Saturday's game against Philadelphia with an upper body injury
Regardless of Couture's availability, DeBoer said Labanc, a native of nearby Staten Island, N.Y., was going to dress against the Devils. Labanc had one of his best games in the NHL on Saturday against the Flyers where he assisted in Patrick Marleau's goal and had a career-high 17:07 of ice time.
DeBoer also kept together the line of Hertl, Joel Ward and Timo Meier, which combined for six shots on goal and a handful of other scoring chances against the Flyers.
Jones had been pulled from a game only once before this season, on Nov. 5 against the Pittsburg Penguins. He responded with one of his best starts of the season in his next appearance, stopping 24 shots in the Sharks 3-0 win over the Washington Capitals on Nov. 8.
