On Monday night, the Sharks hosted the New Jersey Devils and skated off with their fourth win in the last five games, 5-2.
Timo Meier struck twice after the Devils posted a 1-0 lead on a bad angle shot from Drew Stafford.
“He’s (Meier) a critical guy,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “He’s on pace for probably 40 goals right now. Critical piece for us. Gives us power and speed and energy and possession. You take that type of player out of anyone’s lineup and you’re going to feel the effects. It’s nice to have him back.”
Joe Pavelski scored his 20th Monday night in win over Devils – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
Radim Simek scored his first NHL goal, Joe Pavelski picked up his 20th of the campaign and Tomas Hertl added a goal in the win.
“I think I said right from Day One here, I don’t think he’s dropped off at all,” DeBoer said of Pavelski. “I think age is just a number for a guy like him. He works so hard. His game isn’t about speed, it’s about all the other things, and you don’t lose those things as you get older.”
San Jose improved to 16-11-5.
Martin Jones made 22 saves to get the win.
Andy Greene also scored for the Devils.
“We had a really good start for the first 10 minutes or so,” Greene said. “They got one and then they started to push us, and we didn’t push back and they got the second one. … We know [San Jose] is very good at home (10-3-2), they have quick starts. We came out pretty well. We had really good spurts and all of sudden things begin to happen and we wilt.”
New Jersey is 1-4-4 in their last nine.
“It’s tough to win when you keep finding ways to beat yourselves,” Devils forward Travis Zajac said. “We just miss consistency in some areas of the game and that hurt us tonight. We keep finding ways to hurt our game. We can’t consistently string together any momentum.”
New Jersey dropped to 10-13-6.
[WATCH: All Devils vs. Sharks highlights]
Keith Kinkaid made 29 saves in the loss.
“We had the game totally in control and then we had the turnover at the offensive blue line. That gave them the first one and that gave a little bit of momentum. Puck management is something we keep talking about,” Devils head coach John Hynes said. “The challenge with this group is getting them to understand the important parts of those situations. Early in the game we were breaking out and eventually they took over. It comes down to execution, moving the puck quicker, to accept the pass, and there are times in the game when we do a really good job of it and then there are times it’s like a grenade.”
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