Philipp Kurashev and Alexander Wennberg each had a goal and an assist for the San Jose Sharks in a 5-2 win against the visiting New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
William Eklund, Will Smith and Tyler Toffoli also scored for the Sharks, who earned their first home win of the season and have prevailed in three of their past five games. Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves.
Dawson Mercer scored twice off assists from Dougie Hamilton for the Devils, who have lost two straight after an eight-game winning streak. Jake Allen stopped 23 shots.
Eklund gave San Jose a 1-0 lead 42 seconds into the first period. He beat Jonas Siegenthaler to a loose puck at the New Jersey blue line for a breakaway, then put the puck through Allen’s pads.
Kurashev made it 2-0 at 12:12 of the first. Wennberg, playing in his 800th NHL game, collected the puck along the left wall and fed it to Kurashev, who fired a wrist shot from the slot that went five-hole on Allen.
Mario Ferraro’s shot from the left wall deflected off Wennberg and under Allen’s right arm to extend the margin to 3-0 at 15:47 of the first.
Mercer cut it to 3-1 on a power play with one minute left in the opening frame. He redirected Jack Hughes’ shot from the top of the left circle into the far side from the slot.
The Devils pushed in the second period, controlling the play and outshooting the Sharks 13-3 through the first 14 minutes of the frame, but they couldn’t beat Nedeljkovic.
San Jose found its legs again courtesy of Smith with 3:10 to go in the period. He took a backhand cross-ice feed from Macklin Celebrini low in the left circle. Smith had his first attempt blocked, but he picked up his own rebound and wired it off the crossbar and in over Allen’s right shoulder to make it 4-1.
Toffoli increased the lead to 5-1 at 18:30 of the second, with Dmitry Orlov’s shot deflecting off the winger at the side of the net and past Allen.
Mercer was in the slot to tip Hamilton’s shot from high in the zone past Nedeljkovic on a power play to narrow the difference to 5-2 at 4:19 of the third period.
