Devan Dubnyk shines as Sharks shut out Anaheim Ducks

NHL: Erik Karlsson, Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc all score third period goals as the Sharks win consecutive games for the first time this season

Two months into the regular season, the San Jose Sharks finally have their first winning streak.

Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane both scored in the first two periods and Devan Dubnyk finished with 34 saves for his first shutout in over 14 months as the Sharks began a four-game road trip with an emphatic 6-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

Erik Karlsson, Timo Meier, Kevin Labanc and Fredrik Handemark all scored in the third period as the Sharks won consecutive games for the first time since the season began on Jan. 14. The Sharks beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2 in overtime on Monday to close out a seven-game homestand with a 2-4-1 record.

Dubnyk was in net for that game as well, stopping 24 of 26 shots. The Sharks and Ducks play again Saturday night before San Jose heads to Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights on Monday and Wednesday.

“It was a great team win,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said, “and (Dubnyk) was our best player when we needed him.”

Dubnyk earned the 33rd shutout of his NHL career and his first overall since Dec 23, 2019 when he and the Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames 3-0.

Dubnyk’s biggest save Friday may have come near the start of the second period, as he stuck his right pad out to deny a point-blank tip-in attempt from Ducks forward Max Comtois just 13 seconds in. Shortly afterward on a Sharks rush up the ice, Kane redirected a pass from Brent Burns past Ducks goalie John Gibson for a 2-0 San Jose lead.

“That was a game-changer,” Hertl said of Dubnyk’s save. “It was a tap-in backdoor, but he saved it and we right away scored and as that the game-changer. You need this from your goalie and he made an unbelievable save.”

“I don’t really think about it that way too much, but it certainly makes the save feel a lot better when it goes back down the other way and in the back of the net that quickly,” Dubnyk said. “It definitely adds to the good feeling on the save, but I don’t concentrate too much on swings or how the game’s going. I just try to stay level.”

The Sharks (10-11-3) put the game out of reach in the third period as Karlsson, Meier and Labanc all scored in a 3 minute and 18 second span. Meier had missed the last two games with a lower-body injury.

Karlsson’s goal at the 5:58 mark of the third period came on the power play, as the Sharks have now scored seven times in 22 tries with the man advantage over the last seven games.

Labanc assisted on Karlsson’s goal as he had a goal and two assists one game after he was benched by Boughner for the third period Monday against the Blues. The Sharks are 3-0-1 against Anaheim this season.

“You just shift your focus to the next game and make sure you’re giving everything you’ve got,” Labanc said of his bounce-back performance. “Just make sure that you’re plugging into the system and to the team play.”

Hertl had missed the last six Sharks games after he was placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol on Feb. 24. Hertl said Wednesday after his first practice back with the Sharks that he experienced a fever and headaches for the first few days he was at home, and that his wife and baby son also contracted the disease.

Hertl’s first-period goal came on a Sharks power play, as his shot from a sharp angle went off a stick, then off the post and Gibson’s leg before a bounced over the goal line. The goal was Hertl’s seventh of the season and his first since Feb. 13.

“I felt pretty good, I thought it would be a little worse,” Hertl said. “We’ll see tomorrow right away (on a) back-to-back, but it felt really nice, especially when you win like that.”

Handemark’s goal was his first in the NHL, as he corralled a loose puck in the Ducks’ zone and beat goalie Ryan Miller at the 14:59 mark of the third period. Handemark had one NHL game before Friday, as he played Jan. 18 against the St. Louis Blues. After that, though, he was assigned to the Barracuda, where he had seven points in 10 AHL games.

It was a strong night for the fourth line overall. Kurtis Gabriel gave his team an emotional lift with a first-period fight against Nicolas Deslauriers, and a game-high six hits.

The Sharks are going to need to balance out the ice time among their skaters when they can. Starting with Saturday’s game, the Sharks play 11 times in the next 19 days for the rest of March, followed by 21 games in the final 38 days of the regular season.

“I really liked what our fourth line gave us, the Handemark line with Patty (Marleau) and (Gabriel),” Boughner said. “It allows you to play four lines, especially in a back-to-back. All the way in, if you look at our schedule, we’re loaded like everybody else. So we’re going to have to be a four-line team and I thought that each line gave us something tonight.”