Power play finally comes to life
The drought is over. Mikkel Boedker scored San Jose’s first power-play goal in a month, breaking a scoreless tie in the third period and helping lead the Sharks to a grind-’emout 2-0 win over the scuffling St. Louis Blues at SAP Center on Thursday night.
Sharks goalie Martin Jones earned his fourth shutout of the season and the 19th of his career by making 16 saves, only two in the final period when San Jose outshot St. Louis 15-2.
“The boys played really well tonight,” said Jones, appearing for the 11th time in 12 games. “It’s the way we need to play moving forward here. It’s a good thing if I’m not getting too many shots, so good game all around.”
Tomas Hertl added an emptynet goal — his 16th of the season — at 19:45. The Blues lost for the ninth time in 10 games.
“This group gets it done in those types of games,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “It’s kind of how the games are going to start becoming. It wasn’t wide open. It was more about us laying ’em in and trying to work down low a little bit. We were able to draw a penalty and score a big one.”
Boedker scored his 13th goal of the season at 12:12 with a sweeping wrist shot from the inside edge of the left circle after teammate Joonas Donskoi exhibited supreme patience to spot the scoring chance.
Boedker’s shot sailed over the right blocker of goalie Jake Allen, who was stellar in stopping the first 30 shots he faced. San Jose’s Evander Kane drew a holding-the-stick penalty on St. Louis forward Kyle Brodziak to gain the skating advantage.
“We got set up, we got it to move around a little bit and Donnie made a great play,” Boedker said. “I got good wood on it, and it definitely felt good to get that in the back of the net.”
San Jose failed to convert 29 straight power plays over 12 full games, a team record, dating to Feb. 2 against Vegas.
“We knew about the opportunities that we’d missed,” Boedker said. “... It’s just a matter of sticking with it. We have AllStar players in this group that are going to dig us out of the hole.”
The game was scoreless after 40 minutes with the Sharks holding a 21-14 edge in shots.
San Jose generated slightly more offense in the second period after outshooting St. Louis 9-4 in the first. The Sharks had the only power play of the first two periods at 4:58 of the second after St. Louis defenseman Vince Dunn hooked Chris Tierney.
San Jose’s well-documented recent struggles on the power play added another chapter when the Sharks managed two shots on their 29th straight failed conversion over 13 games.
Allen was forced into action after expected starter Carter Hutton was a late scratch. Hutton, formerly in the Sharks’ organization, was experiencing neck pain. That necessitated a same-day recall of Ville Husso from San Antonio of the AHL.
Husso could not arrive in time, so the Blues signed emergency net-minder Ben Wexler of Palo Alto. The 23-year-old, who was dressed and watched from the locker room, spent three seasons from 2014 through ’17 at the University of Illinois, where he appeared in 26 games.
Meanwhile, the Sharks held an opponent to a season-low 16 shots on goal.
“The commitment was a big part of it,” Pavelski said. “They’re a tough team to play against. They’re in your face. We were stopping on pucks, being hard, winning battles and we didn’t give them a lot on the rush. That’s a strength for us when we’re playing well.”
Briefly: Sharks center Melker Karlsson (upper body) skated Thursday morning after missing the past two practices. He remains day-to-day. … Forward Jannik Hansen joined defensemen Tim Heed and Paul Martin as the Sharks’ healthy scratches.