SAN JOSE — Brent Burns is getting used to seeing rare milestones in person.
He watched Joe Thornton suit up for his 1,500th game on Nov. 8. Five days later, he watched Thornton score his 400th goal to clinch a comeback win over the Nashville Predators. Last month, he reached his own milestone, playing in game No. 1,000 on Dec. 27.
But Burns acknowledged that being on the ice for the Sharks 1,000th franchise win in Las Vegas Thursday was quite “special.” The Sharks hit the mark in game No. 2,112, the third-fastest organization to reach the milestone.
“Playing with Jumbo, you see some crazy milestones. This is a special one to be a part of,” the Sharks defenseman said. “It was nice doing it in a building that’s given us tough games.”
Per @EliasSports
Fewest games to first 1,000 regular season wins, NHL history
#LetsGoFlyers 2,018
#GoHabsGo 2,064
>#SJSharks 2,112#NHLStats— Darin Stephens (@SharksStats) January 11, 2019
The win also allowed the Sharks to leapfrog the Vegas Golden Knights in the Pacific Division standings and move into second place. On the downside, Erik Karlsson’s 14-game point streak came to an end as he logged 30:09 of ice time with Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun sidelined by injuries. The Sharks improved to 4-0 without their top-shutdown pairing.
Here’s what we learned as the Sharks winning streak reached five games with a 3-2 win in Sin City.
1. Martin Jones flashes elite stuff, out-dueling Marc-André Fleury.
As Jones spoke to reporters after his 36-save performance, the Sharks’ fathers celebrated his 29th birthday. The dads were in Las Vegas for their annual “fathers’ trip” and they serenaded Jones with a boozy rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
“It sound pretty (expletive),” Burns joked.
Jones’ performance in the goal crease was the exact opposite of the fathers’ choral debut.
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Goaltending is the Sharks No. 1 question mark heading toward the stretch run and Jones showed the Sharks what they’ll need Thursday. The Sharks entered the day’s action ranked 31st in even strength save percentage (89.98 percent), Jones was 39th (.899), numbers that won’t cut it in the playoffs, especially when you’re squaring off against the best goalies, such as Fleury.
With his best showing of the season, Jones flashed the stuff that’s made him an elite-playoff goalie during his tenure with the Sharks. It’s the first time this season that Jones has stolen a game.
In the middle of the first, he closed the pads on Oscar Lindberg’s open look from the slot. Jones thwarted Jonathan Marchessault with his right pad in the opening minute of the second, the first of 12 saves in the period that kept the Sharks in a tie game. He made 12 more saves in the third, including a remarkable five-hole squeeze on a redirection with 93 seconds left on the clock.
“If you’re going to (win) in buildings on the road, you’re goalie’s going to have to be very good,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “He was excellent tonight at the right times. You need that kind of goaltending heading down the stretch. He’s given it to us in my time here.”
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It’s the type of performance that could propel Jones to some forward momentum after a forgettable first half. Jones is definitely starting to trend in the right direction, recording a .922 save percentage in his first four starts of the new year.
Thursday’s performance also put a smile on his father’s face.
“It’s pretty cool,” Harvey Jones said. “I’ve seen a few wins in some important games on his birthday, but this one is right up there.”
2. The Sharks avoid a Groundhog Day scenario.
This time, when Ned Ryerson approached the Sharks on the street, they wound up and punched him in the face.
The first 10 minutes of Thursday’s game certainly looked like Groundhog Day with the Golden Knights swarming around the Sharks like the annoying former-classmate who accosted Bill Murray day after day before he finally snapped and fed him a knuckle sandwich.
After spending the morning preaching about the importance of putting together a strong start, the Sharks surrendered the opening goal just 94 seconds into the game. Tomas Nosek buried the rebound of a Ryan Reaves shot, triggering flashbacks of the Sharks first trip to Las Vegas on Nov. 24 when William Karlsson scored 14 seconds into the first and the Golden Knights carried a 4-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Sharks also coughed up four first period goals to the Golden Knights in Game 1 of last year’s second-round playoff series and they fell behind 4-1 in their first-ever meeting with their Pacific Division rivals at T-Mobile Arena on Nov. 24, 2017.
On Thursday, the Sharks stopped the early adversity from snowballing into a blowout. Jones played a big hand in that, making 12 saves in the period. Tomas Hertl eventually broke through with an unassisted goal at 14:05 of the second, and after Jon Merrill gave the Knights a 2-1 lead just 2:16 into the third, Melker Karlsson and Joonas Donskoi scored goals 39 seconds apart to catapult the Sharks to victory.
Do not doubt thy Don-Father pic.twitter.com/27Ydwpu7eJ
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 11, 2019
“We talked about it yesterday,” DeBoer said. “Instead of allowing it to get to 2-0 or 3-0, we got some saves and we showed more composure, a little more pushback in that situation.
“We didn’t want to let the game get away from us again.”
3. Another impressive win to add to the resumé.
The Sharks are really bolstering their resumé this month, leaving no doubt that they’ve thrust themselves back into the Stanley Cup conversation.
After they ended the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 16-game points streak last weekend, the Sharks played spoilers again, snapping the Vegas Golden Knights seven-game winning streak, 10-game points streak and 12-game home points streak.
The win is the Sharks first in Las Vegas in four regular season tries and their first regulation win at T-Mobile Arena in seven games.
Exercising the Vegas demons should give the Sharks some confidence if they return for a likely playoff series in the spring.
“We know we can play here. We know we can play with them,” Joe Pavelski said. “This wasn’t anything we didn’t expect that we could do. But it was about doing it.”
