The San Jose Sharks needed someone to step up and make a big splash in the pool and Sunday night Martin Jones made 40 saves to help them defeat the Canadiens in Montreal, 3-1.
“That’s a way better game, how we played,” Jones said. “Despite the shots, it’s the 2-on-1s and the odd-man rushes that have been hurting us, so we thought we did a great job tonight.”
Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski and Justin Braun scored for the Sharks.
Joe Pavelski had a goal in Sharks win over Habs Sunday night – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The win stopped an ugly four-game skid that culminated in a team meeting with their general manager, Doug Wilson.
“The tone was, ‘We can figure this out, we have the team to win games in this League,'” San Jose forward Logan Couture said. “It takes a full buy-in from everyone to do things right and I think tonight is a step in that direction. I thought we did a lot of the little things well tonight.
“We got in shooting lanes, we played hard, you know, we were hard on the walls. I think we can still do a better job at getting pucks out in the third when they pinched down a bunch of times, but we’ll take the win.”
The Sharks moved to 13-10-5 with the win.
“At the end of the day, it usually comes down to just wanting it a little bit more, competing a little bit more, sacrificing a little more. We’ve been in a tough stretch, but it’s nice to get a win and hopefully we can keep climbing now,” Pavelski said after the game.
Jeff Petry scored the lone goal for the Habs who dropped to 12-10-5.
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Canadiens highlights]
Carey Price made 26saves in the loss.
“That’s a good hockey team over there. There are a lot of veterans over there who know how to play with the lead,” Max Domi said. “They capitalized on their opportunities early so that’s on us, but we did rally back a little bit. And in the third we were creating some offense, but you know what, [Sharks goalie Martin Jones] played pretty good.”
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