SAN JOSE – The Sharks needed to get two points on Thursday evening in a major way. From how the game against the Stars looked in the first period, those points were looking far out of reach.
"Kind of just a fairly boring game early on," captain Joe Pavelski admitted after the contest with Dallas, who was playing the second night of a back-to-back. "We probably could've had a little more energy early, but they didn't have that much either."
But behind a critical second-period goal from Timo Meier, Team Teal was able to rally late and put on a third-period performance that helped them snag those highly-coveted two points. The effort showed that, despite that slow first frame, the Sharks' overall game is trending in the right direction.
"This was a big win for us tonight," coach Peter DeBoer said. "Took us a couple periods to create some room for ourselves. We got some good contributions from everyone."
The victory didn't just give San Jose some much-needed points in the Pacific Division standings. (Not to mention help them improve to 10-5-1 against Western Conference teams with 21 points earned in 16 games.) It also gave them a third win in a row – a feat they've had trouble with so far this season.
The only other time the Sharks tallied more than two wins in a row was back in mid-October when they defeated the Sabres, Islanders, and Predators in succession. Since then they've battled with finding consistency all while having a very unforgiving travel schedule. Despite finally having a couple days at home to work on their game, it took a bit on Thursday night for San Jose to find that fire in their game.
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When they did find it, however, their battle to take over the game was evident.
"As the season goes on and you travel – some nights you feel better than others, and tonight was a night I thought we were off a little bit," DeBoer acknowledged. "But we battled and found a way to win and got two critical points."
Much of that battle came for the Sharks in the latter part of the game. Where San Jose faltered against Dallas in the third frame of their previous meeting, the final stanza was where the Sharks thrived on Thursday evening. Not bad for a team who entered Thursday's game scoring as many goals in third-period situations as they were giving up.
"We've been wanting to play aggressive in the third and I think you saw that," Joe Thornton said. "We were just more aggressive, staying on pucks and attacking. It was good to see."
Now with those three wins all lined up in a row, the Sharks need to keep improving. They hit the road yet again for a two-game stint against Chicago and Minnesota, into two buildings that aren't particularly easy to play in. But while there are still things to work on, San Jose is trending in the right direction.
"As a team, we're starting to grow into what we need to be, and we still have a long way to go," Erik Karlsson said. "I think we're starting to find our groove here a little bit, hopefully. We just need to keep building on that."
