MONTREAL _ The Sharks are flying back to San Jose with the bandage firmly wrapped after they left a trail of blood from Las Vegas to Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal last week.
Joe Pavelski said the Sharks needed to stop the bleeding immediately after Saturday's blowout loss in Ottawa and they delivered with a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night.
The Sharks first-road win since Oct. 28 snapped their four-game losing streak and ended their string of six straight losses away from SAP Center. With two five-on-five goals, the Sharks matched their total produced over the first four games of the trip.
After Saturday's loss, head coach Pete DeBoer acknowledged that his dressing room was suffering from lack of confidence after opening its five-game road trip with an 0-3-1 record. With that in mind, Justin Braun's goal at 2:55 of the first was exactly what the Sharks needed to get the good feelings flowing again.
Braun picked off a pass in the neutral zone and then beat Carey Price with a 66-foot slapshot. That doesn't happen every day, but the Sharks will take all the good fortune they can get right now. They made it 2-0 at 10:29 of the first when Brent Burns buried a pass from Joe Pavelski on a 5-on-3 power play, his first goal in 15 games.
But the pivotal moment came at 15:51 of the second when the Sharks did something they'd failed to do throughout the road trip: respond in the face of adversity. After the Sharks failed to capitalize on a handful of high-danger scoring chances, Jeff Petry cut the lead in half at 12:15 of the middle frame. At that point, the Habs held all the momentum, outshooting the Sharks 16-8 over a 20-minute span.
Then, Burns fed Pavelski a beautiful seam pass, giving him an open look in the slot and he capitalized, scoring his team-leading 17th goal to put the Sharks ahead by two.
As was the case throughout the Sharks inconsistent month of November, the team received solid goaltending from Martin Jones because they played a tight-defensive game in front of him. Jones made 39 saves on 40 shots, including 22 in the third.
The Sharks will return to action at SAP Center Wednesday, taking on the Carolina Hurricanes before heading out to Dallas and Arizona for a quick two-game trip on Friday and Saturday.
