Sabres continue run of success in San Jose

[February 27, 2016]  SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Buffalo Sabres coach Dan Bylsma was afraid to even talk about his team's bizarre string of success against the San Jose Sharks. It turns out, the silent treatment was best course of action.

Defenseman Zach Bogosian's tie-breaking goal at 12:36 of the third period enabled Buffalo to skate out of SAP Center with a 3-1 win on Friday, thus ending the Sharks' nine-game points streak and extending the Sabres' streak to five straight wins at the Shark Tank.

"I don't know if it's something in the water here but there's been quite a lot of success for the Sabres here in this building," Bylsma said. "We didn't talk about it before the game, didn't want to jinx it."

The Sharks squandered a chance to reach .500 at home for the first time this season and pull within four points of idle Los Angeles for the lead in the Pacific Division. Instead, third-place San Jose slipped four points behind second-place and victorious Anaheim while remaining six behind the Kings.

"I have to give them credit," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "They came in here and played a really hard game. They were hard on the puck, they were heavy. They were tough around their own net. The goalie made some saves he had to."

Bogosian's shot from the right point deflected off the left skate of Sharks' left winger Tomas Hertl and over the left shoulder of San Jose goalie Martin Jones to decide this bizarre penalty-free game.

Hertl otherwise had good defensive positioning as he was fronting Buffalo center Sam Reinhart 15 feet in front of Jones. He was attempting to block Bogosian's soft shot, but inadvertently redirected the puck into the net. It was Bogosian's fourth goal of the year.

"I tried to make a little fake to open up a lane and I shot it and I think it went off (Logan) Couture's glove," Bogosian said. "Sometimes those ones go in. The hockey gods I guess."

Buffalo left winger Evander Kane filled an empty net with his 17th goal of the season at 18:43 as the Sharks failed to register a shot on goal with Jones pulled at the 18:13 mark of the final period.

"We had our chances to get ours and didn't capitalize," Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said.

The Sharks scored the lone goal of a choppy first period that featured a combined 13 shots by both teams and maybe just as many icings.

San Jose left winger Matt Nieto collected a neutral zone turnover and drove the right boards before tossing a backhand cross-ice pass to Marc-Edouard Vlasic at the opposite point. The defenseman let go with a wrist shot just above the left circle that beat Sabres goalie Chad Johnson (24 saves) over the right blocker for Vlasic's eighth goal of the season at 1:28.

It turns out Nieto's pass wasn't intended for Vlasic.

"That was meant for Nick," Nieto admitted with a smile. "It ended up working out."

Buffalo scored the only goal of the middle period when the Sabres took advantage of a bad turnover by the Sharks to gain the equalizer. Defenseman Brenden Dillon failed to catch a simple cross-ice pass from partner Roman Polak as Buffalo right wing Brian Gionta corralled the loose puck along the right boards.

"It bounced over my stick, then bounced perfectly off the boards right to him," Dillon said. "Bad luck obviously."

"It just goes to show how bad the ice is on a nightly basis," Vlasic added.

Gionta cut toward the middle and fired a shot that squeezed through Jones. Not until a diving Johan Larsson poked the trickling puck over the goal line at 13:38 did the visitors tie it, however. It was the left winger's third goal in 55 appearances this season.

"We wanted to stay tight and play a solid road game and I think we did for the most part," Larsson said. "We battled really hard."

NOTES: The Sharks ended an 0-7-1 slide against the Sabres with a 2-1 win in Buffalo on Nov. 14. ... RW Tommy Wingels missed his fourth straight game due to a sprained shoulder and remains on injured reserve. ... D Roman Polak and LW Nick Spaling made their Sharks' home debuts after playing one game on Wednesday in Denver with San Jose following their arrival via trade from Toronto on Monday. ... Buffalo concludes its three-game trip to California at Los Angeles on Saturday. ... The Sharks next visit Vancouver on Sunday. ... RW Mike Brown, D Dylan DeMelo and D Matt Tennyson did not dress for San Jose while C Cal O'Reilly and D Cody Franson were healthy scratches for Buffalo.

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