SAN JOSE, Calif. _ It doesn't hurt to have a little luck on your side when you're trying to beat a team for just the second time in more than seven years.
The San Jose Sharks had a bounce go their way Tuesday night in their tortured history against Buffalo, as a goal credited to Micheal Haley proved to be the winner in their 4-1 victory over the Sabres at SAP Center.
Joe Pavelski scored twice, including one on the power play in the second period, as the Sharks beat the Sabres for just the second time in their last 12 meetings. Logan Couture added a goal and an assist and goalie Martin Jones finished with 22 saves to improve to 32-17-6 this season.
The Sharks' last win over Buffalo in San Jose was Jan. 23, 2010, when Pavelski also two goals in what was a 5-2 victory.
On the winning goal, Cody Franson, from behind the Sabres' goal line to the left of goalie Robin Lehner, backhanded a pass that looked intended for Jack Eichel. Instead, a forechecking Haley got a small piece of the puck right at the same time as Eichel tried to collect the pass.
The puck then went off Eichel's skate and bounced through Lehner's pads for a 2-1 Sharks lead with 50 seconds to go in the second period.
Pavelski added an insurance goal 5:28 into the third period for his team-leading 28th of the season, Couture scored at the 5:03 mark, and the Sharks improved to 3-1 on their six-game homestand.
Pavelski has seven goals in the last five games as the Sharks, with 91 points, now have a nine-point lead in the Pacific Division and are two points back of the Western Conference-leading Chicago Blackhawks. The homestand continues Thursday against St. Louis.
The Sharks scored their first goal on their third power play and their 31st shot of the game.
Joe Thornton fed a pass to Couture, who was stationed just behind the goal line to the left of Lehner. Couture backhanded a pass to the slot to Pavelski, who one-timed past Lehner to tie the game 1-1 with 8:13 left in the second period.
Before that, it looked like it might be another frustrating night for the Sharks against the Sabres.
A shot by Josh Gorges from inside the Sharks' blue line went off Paul Martin right to Matt Moulson, who found an open Eichel with a pass across the slot. Eichel had nothing but an open net to look at as he scored his 20th of the season for a 1-0 Sabres lead just 1:10 into the first period.
It was the second-fastest opening goal the Sharks had allowed all year. On Feb. 9 in Boston, David Backes scored 52 seconds into the first period in what became a 6-3 Bruins win.
The Sharks thought they had tied it at the 10:47 mark of the first period, as Brent Burns took the puck toward the Sabres net and Marcus Sorensen tapped in the loose puck. Officially almost immediately determined, though, that Burns had interfered with Lehner before Sorensen's goal.
The Sharks challenged the call and lost. They finished the first period with a 20-9 lead in shots.
Jones was making his fourth start in seven games this month. The Sharks will continue to take it easy on Jones for the next couple weeks before things ramp up again toward the end of the regular season.
Jones started five of the Sharks' last eight games in 2015-16, including the last two.
"That's always what you give up when you try to give them a little more rest, is you get out of that game-in, game-out rhythm," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said of Jones' rest-to-games ratio.
"We think that we'll be able to build that back in as we get closer to the playoffs. They'll jump into that once the playoff start and we'll have a fresh guy like we had last year. Basically trying to follow the same formula as we did last year with (Jones)."
The Sharks had killed off nine straight penalties in three games before Tuesday, but they didn't want to tempt the Sabres' red-hot power play.
Buffalo had scored eight goals with the man advantage in its last six games prior to coming to San Jose and was first in the NHL at 23.7 percent.
In Feb. 7 last meeting with the Sabres, the Sharks got called for holding, hooking and throwing the stick. Buffalo responded with two power play goals and with a stirring third period comeback, earned a 5-4 overtime win.
"We played two periods about as well as you can play and a third period about as poorly as you can play," DeBoer said Tuesday morning. "This team, for whatever reason, seems to have our number and has over the years, so we have to get past that.
"The good news is we have a lot of good tape on what works against them and also a little bit on what doesn't. It's just about executing and doing it for 60 minutes."
_Defenseman David Schlemko and forward Melker Karlsson both remained out of the lineup with lower body injuries. Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said Schlemko is getting much closer to a return. Karlsson is also improving. With Karlsson out, Marcus Sorensen drew into the lineup for the second straight game. Sorensen had an assist in Sunday's win over Dallas. Schlemko has missed six straight games since he was hurt March 2 against Vancouver.
