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Forward Timo Meier could have a healthy long-term contract offer coming his way from the Sharks in the summer of 2019 when he’s set to become a restricted free agent.
The way Meier’s been playing lately, that potential deal certainly isn’t getting any cheaper.
Meier scored two goals for the second straight game Thursday and Joe Thornton netted the game-winner with 12:04 left in the third period as the Sharks earned a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars at SAP Center to extend their winning streak to three games.
Logan Couture added two assists and goalie Martin Jones finished with 20 saves as the Sharks improved to 5-2-0 for the month of December and began Friday tied for second place in the Pacific Division.
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Meier now has 18 goals this season, as he’s scored two goals in a game four times this year. In five games since he returned to the lineup Dec. 5 after he missed three games with an upper body injury, Meier has five goals and four assists and the Sharks are 4-1.
“You can just see the confidence,” Thornton said when asked about Meier after the game. “Confidence is just oozing out of him, and he’s playing great hockey right now.”
Going into Sunday’s game in Chicago, Meier and Couture are tied for the Sharks’ team lead with 32 points each. Meier is also second on the Sharks in goals, two behind leader Joe Pavelski.
“Most important is that we get wins here,” Meier said. “We’ve had a tough stretch before with a tough schedule. To get a couple wins in a row here, it feels good for the team. We want to build on those. We want to try to find a way games. It definitely helps us to grow.”
Some takeaways from Thursday’s game
1. Sharks maintain their composure after some early adversity: The Sharks entered Thursday with just two wins in 11 games this season when the opposing team scores first, and were probably a bit lucky to be down by just one goal by the time Meier scored his first of the night with 3:40 left in the second period.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Sharks allowed seven high danger scoring chances in the second period and generated none on their own.
So this one could have gotten away from them pretty easily, like it did so often did during their recent road trip from Las Vegas to Eastern Canada.
But the Sharks stayed composed, for the most part. Jones had 11 saves in the second period and Meier provided his team with a necessary jolt.
“I didn’t think we played very well, but we found a way to win,” Couture told KFOX radio after the game. “Throughout a season, that’s what good teams do. They find ways to win those games. You go back two weeks ago and we were finding ways to lose those games.
“It’s tough to complain when you win a game in this league. But we could have been a lot better, and we’re looking to have a better one on Sunday.”
The Sharks had three high danger scoring chances in the third, and didn’t allow one to the Stars.
“I think we understand. It’s the NHL. A lot of games you’re down one or tied going into the third,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “It’s how it is in the playoffs. It’s something that you have to learn to play in and understand the patience that, this group, if we keep doing it right, we’ll find goals. It showed tonight.”
2. Will these forward lines get a longer look? Couture and Tomas Hertl have not been on different forward lines very often over the past year-and-a-half. But Pete DeBoer gave his lines a fresh look to start the third, with Couture centering a line with Meier and Joonas Donskoi, Hertl skating with Evander Kane and Melker Karlsson and Thornton centering Pavelski and Marcus Sorensen.
It’s hard to argue with the results. The Sharks created nine scoring chances in the final 20 minutes and found more ways to solve Stars goalie Anton Khudobin, who entered Thursday with a 5-1-0 record and a .959 save percentage in six career games against the Sharks.
“We could have probably had a little more energy early, but they didn’t have that much, either,” Pavelski said. “It was a fairly boring game early on. At the end of the night, we found a few goals in the third.”
Perhaps this means Hertl will be the third line center for the start of Sunday’s game. Or considering how the Sharks just simply found a way to win, maybe the lines will go back to the way they were before Thursday.
“I thought we showed some patience tonight,” DeBoer said. “We got down in the game, we juggled the lines a little bit, found a little bit of jump and Timo’s first goal was obviously a big one to get the crowd into it and get us going.”
The Sharks have been looking for greater consistency from their depth forwards. Antti Suomela went without a point in seven straight games and is now trying to iron things in a stint with the Barracuda. Rourke Chartier, who was recalled from the Barracuda of the AHL on Wednesday, was scratched.
Could Hertl at center be the answer at the third line center position? We shall see.
After facing the Blackhawks, the Sharks play the Wild in Minnesota on Tuesday. Then before their three-day Christmas break begins, the Sharks host Winnipeg on Dec.20, Los Angeles on Dec. 22 and Arizona on Dec. 23.
