Meier, Sharks continue hot streaks
The Sharks are starting to look like the team they thought they were before the season started.
Timo Meier continued his torrid streak, scoring his 17th and 18th goals of the season, and goalie Martin Jones made 20 stops to spark San Jose to its fifth win in six games, a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night at SAP Center.
“We have a better understanding what it takes to win right now,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said.
“We’re real stingy right now,” teammate Joe Thornton added. “We’re playing good defense and getting timely goals, but we’re taking care of our end first.”
Meier broke a 1-1 tie early in the third period by completing a 3-on-1 break. Defenseman Erik Karlsson started the sequence by swatting a puck out of midair to spring the hosts on an odd-man break.
“I can’t say that was meant to be,” Karlsson said. “I played a little tennis growing up, my hand-eye (coordination) is decent. I was just trying to bat it out of the air and we got in behind them.”
Logan Couture and Meier played give-and-go before Meier lasered a shot past Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin at 2:50. Back from an upper-body injury, Meier has five goals and nine points in five games.
“I was kind of getting ready to pass it back,” Meier said. “He’s a great shooter, too, and can put those in the back of the net. It was kind of wobbly, so he gave it back to me, and I just tried to find the back of the net.”
Thornton scored his fifth of the season at 7:56 to stake San Jose to a 3-1 lead. He poked a puck from Dallas center Tyler Pitlick and — as luck would have it — an attempted shot by a teammate caromed back to Thornton, who scored into an empty net from the bottom of the right circle.
“One of those that just pops out and it’s an open net,” Thornton said. “Good fortune, I guess.”
The Stars, playing for the second night in a row, trimmed it back to a one-goal deficit at 12:24 when defenseman Miro Heiskanen beat Jones from the high slot for his seventh goal to cap a Dallas sequence after the Sharks turned the puck over at center.
The Sharks managed to hold on and allow only one shot over the final 1:38 when Dallas employed an extra skater with the goalie pulled.
“Most important is we get wins here,” Meier said. “We had a tough stretch, a tough schedule. To get a couple wins here and build on those is important.”
Dallas broke the ice in the second period just when it appeared neither team would find the back of the net. Stars defenseman Julius Honka picked himself up following a Radim Simek check to let go with a wrister from the bottom of the right circle that eluded Jones and struck the near post. Dallas center Radek Faksa was Johnnyon-the-spot to slam the carom from the slot into the vacated net for his fifth goal at 3:35 and a 1-0 lead.
San Jose finally struck late in the period on a faceoff play in the Dallas end.
Couture won a draw back to Brent Burns at the right point. The defenseman cleverly spun and fed Meier while using his body to shield Dallas forward Valeri Nichushkin. And Meier let a wrist shot go from just inside the Dallas blue line that beat a screened Khudobin at 16:20 for a 1-1 tie for his first goal of the night.
Briefly: Forward Rourke Chartier joined defensemen Joakim Ryan and Tim Heed as San Jose’s healthy scratches. … The Sharks sent rookie center Antti Suomela to the minors and promoted Chartier.