The San Jose Sharks’ season has not been much to write home about but Monday night Tim Heed, Joe Pavelski and Joel Ward scored to help the Sharks defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2.
“The mindset for us tonight was the same throughout the game: That was to put the puck in good places, not to turn it over and feed their speed and their skill,” San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer said. “I thought we did a good job. We executed for 60 minutes.
“We got contributions from everybody. I think a little bit of fear in the belly from the highest scoring team in the League (entering Monday) coming in here maybe grabs your attention a little bit. I think our guys did a really good job of executing the game plan and sticking with it for 60 minutes.”
Nazem Kadri and Auston Matthews scored for Toronto.
“We’ve been turning the puck over too much,” Matthews said. “We stop that, we can win. I thought our work ethic and competing was much better tonight. We need to get out of the little funk we’re in.”
Patrick Marleau made his first appearance in San Jose since signing with the Leafs in the off season.
“It was humbling,” Marleau said. “It was extremely special to be honored like that by the Sharks and the organization and the fans. I’ll never forget it.”
Martin Jones faced only 18 shots from the Leafs and made 16 saves to pick up the win.
“It was great. I had a tear in my eye. I don’t know how the fans, how they reacted. You spend so much time with him, he’s like a brother. You spend 13 years with the guy, you create such a big bond with him. It was classy,” the Sharks’ Joe Thornton said of the tribute to Marleau.
[WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Sharks highlights]
Frederik Andersen took the loss on 36 saves.
“I thought San Jose did a great job of putting pressure on us in our zone, and we turned the puck over way too much. Partly because they were working hard and coming at us from behind. That made them quicker. We never got on top of them,” Leafs’ head coach Mike Babcock said after the loss.
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