ANAHEIM, Calif. — Two months into the regular season, the San Jose Sharks finally have their first winning streak.
Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane both scored in the first two periods and Devan Dubnyk finished with 34 saves as the Sharks began a four-game road trip with an emphatic 6-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.
Erik Karlsson, Timo Meier, Kevin Labanc and Fredrik Handemark all scored in the third period as the Sharks won consecutive games for the first time since the season began on Jan. 14. The Sharks beat the St. Louis Blues on Monday to close out a seven-game homestand with a 2-4-1 record.
Dubnyk was in net for that game as well, stopping 24 of 26 shots in a 3-2 overtime win. The Sharks and Ducks play again Saturday night before San Jose heads to Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights on Monday and Wednesday.
Dubnyk had 33 saves as he earned the 33rd shutout of his NHL career.
Dubnyk’s shutout was his first with the Sharks and his first overall since Dec 23, 2019 when he and the Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames 3-0.
Dubnyk’s biggest save Friday may have come near the start of the second period, as he stuck his right pad out to deny a point-blank tip-in attempt from Ducks forward Max Comtois just 13 seconds in. Shortly afterward on a Sharks rush up the ice, Kane redirected a pass from Burns past Ducks goalie John Gibson for a 2-0 San Jose lead.
The Sharks (10-11-3) put the game out of reach in the third period as Karlsson, Meier and Labanc all scored in a 3 minute and 18 second span. Meier had missed the last two games with a lower-body injury, as the Sharks improved 3-0-1 against Anaheim this season.
Hertl had missed the last six Sharks games after he was placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol on Feb. 24. Hertl said Wednesday after his first practice back with the Sharks that he experienced a fever and headaches for the first few days he was at home, and that his wife and baby son also contracted the disease.
Hertl’s first-period goal came on a Sharks power play, as his shot from a sharp angle went off a stick, then off the post and Gibson’s leg before a bounced over the goal line. The goal was Hertl’s seventh of the season and his first since Feb. 13.
Handemark’s goal was his first in the NHL, as he corralled a loose puck in the Ducks’ zone and beat goalie Ryan Miller at the 14:59 mark of the third period. Handemark played in one NHL game before Friday, as he played Jan. 18 against the St. Louis Blues. After that, though, he was assigned to the Barracuda, where he had seven points in 10 AHL games.
