SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Sharks center Logan Couture said there might have been a time early in his NHL career when he was fully conscious of any active point streak that he was enjoying.
That's changed, Couture said, to the point where it wasn't until a couple of games ago that he was aware he was on another extended run.
"A couple of the guys said something," Couture said Tuesday morning. "I guess when you're on a streak like this, to keep it going, you just focus on helping the team win and good things usually happen."
Couture entered Tuesday's game against the Minnesota Wild on a career-high nine-game point streak, recording five goals and nine assists in the process.
That streak ended against the Wild, but the Sharks got a career night from Marcus Sorensen as they earned a 4-3 victory at SAP Center.
Sorensen had a hand in the first three Sharks goals before Barclay Goodrow scored the go-ahead goal at the 7:25 mark of the third period.
Brent Burns let a shot go from inside the blue line that was redirected by Goodrow past Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk.
Sorensen, in his first three-point game of his NHL career, scored in the first period and assisted on second period goals by Joe Thornton, the 399th of Thornton's NHL career, and Antti Suomela, the second of his career. Both Sorensen and Goodrow finished the game with plus-4 ratings.
Zach Parise scored on the power play in the second period for Minnesota, and Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba scored even strength goals 2:05 apart early in the third as the Wild quickly erased what had been a 3-1 San Jose lead after two.
Couture's streak has largely come with Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier as his linemates. Tuesday, though, Hertl was scratched, still recovering from the head injury he suffered in Saturday's game vs. Philadelphia, so Kevin Labanc took his spot on the Sharks' second line.
Couture, Meier and Hertl had formed what was easily been the Sharks' most productive line to date. Entering Tuesday, Meier had points in 10 of his last 11 games _ including 10 goals _ and Hertl, in that same span, has four goals and nine assists.
"Logan's always been a really good player. We've surrounded him with a couple really good linemates this year," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. "He hasn't maybe had the luxury of consistently having those type of players with him. He's never one to complain about it, he just goes out and does his job and tries to make other people better.
"But the fact you've got an elite player and now he's got a couple of elite wingers around him, I think everybody looks better."
Couture believes the speed in which the line has played together has led to numerous scoring chances.
"We're playing fast and that's how we're creating our opportunities, transition through the neutral zone," Couture said. "There's a lot of skill with Timo and Tommy when he's healthy and now (Kevin Labanc). So, just creating opportunities with our speed."
"I think he's played awesome," Hertl said of Couture. "He's played awesome for a long time, but I'm really happy for him. He has this his point streak because he does everything for our team.
"He's always in ... right place, right moment."
Hertl and Couture started to play together in October of last season. They provided some offensive punch, no doubt, but also evolved into a duo largely responsible for skating against the top line of opposing teams.
Couture's two-way play figured to be especially important Tuesday, as the Wild entered the game with seven wins in its last eight games. In that time, Minnesota's top line of Parise, Mikko Koivu and Mikael Granlund has a combined nine goals and eight assists.
DeBoer had Parise for one season in New Jersey, 2011-12, when the Devils advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. He called Parise the "heartbeat" of any team he's on, and Parise scored a power play goal at the 12:56 mark of the second period to cut San Jose's lead at that point to 2-1.
"We don't do a ton of that hard matching," DeBoer said. "But we definitely have to be aware of (Parise) and you're going to have to work when you're on the ice with him because he outworks most of the people he goes up against."
