It’s been anything but a smooth ride so far this season for the San Jose Sharks. It’s been up and down but Saturday night Martin Jones made 24 saves to help the Sharks defeat of the visiting New York Islanders, 4-1.
Joonas Donskoi, Brent Burns, Timo Meier, and Logan Couture struck for goals for San Jose.
“I liked how we played,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think we played some pretty good hockey all year. We didn’t get rewarded on the road to start the season, but I knew it was a matter of time if we kept playing that way. We got home here, we’re comfortable, we started to score, we feel a little bit confident.
“There’s two good home wins for us. We go back on the road again now.”
San Jose improve to 4-3-1 with the win.
“I think we played pretty well tonight,” said Couture, who has a three-game point streak (four goals, two assists). “I think all facets of our game was good. Special teams was good even though we didn’t score on the power play. I thought we created some good looks. Obviously, the 5-on-5 game was good. We could have had a lot more than four. Goaltending was terrific. [Jones] has been great on this homestand. We’re a tough team to beat when we’re playing like that.”
Brock Nelson had the lone goal for the Isles who dropped to 3-4-0.
“I thought our battle level wasn’t as good as it needed to be,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “You look at the first three goals, two turnovers, one at our blue one, one inside our blue line. They turned it into transitions and then the 4-on-4. It was a battle, and we didn’t have what I call layers of support on that battle and we just made poor decisions.”
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Sharks highlights]
Robin Lehner made 37 saves in the loss.
“This is a tough building to play in, and they didn’t have that real dominant first period that they usually have,” the Islanders’ Matt Martin said. “For the most part in the first, it was real boring; in this building, I guess in some ways you take that as a win. We were able to go 1-1 into the intermission and then a couple costly mistakes by us and then we’ve got to find a way to respond.”
Some season Lehner will sign with a team that gives him some offensive support.
“At times, we weren’t fully engaged as a team, especially in the second. When we had a few mistakes, the bench kind of sunk. We didn’t pick each other up and find a way to take the game back. That’s disappointing, but I definitely think the third period, from a physical and emotional standpoint, it’s a positive that we’re all going to have each other’s backs in here. No one’s going to quit,” Martin added.
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