Bruins beat Sharks 3-1 for third straight win to open season
By JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Brad Marchand and James van Riemsdyk scored 21 seconds apart late in the first period and the Boston Bruins won their third straight game to open the season, beating the San Jose Sharks 3-1 on Thursday night.
David Pastrnak scored for the fourth time this season and Linus Ullmark made 26 saves to get the Bruins off to a good start on their four-game trip.
"I think it's a good opportunity to get on a little bit of a roll," van Riemsdyk said. "We have a lot of kind of games in a short span and I think that's good this time of year to kind of get in the rhythm of our playing games and going from there."
The Sharks wrapped up a season-opening, four-game homestand with another loss. San Jose earned only one point in the four games against reigning division champions, losing in a shootout to Colorado on Saturday night.
The Sharks became the third team ever to go winless when opening the season with four straight games at home. The California Golden Seals had two losses and two ties in 1971-72 and Calgary had three losses and a tie in 1997-98.
Anthony Duclair scored the lone goal for San Jose. Kaapo Kahkonen made 34 saves.
"We made a step forward with the things we touched on after our last game," coach David Quinn said. "I thought we spent more time in the o-zone and there was definitely more possession and forechecking. But, we've got a long way to go to where we want to get to, and you're not going to get from A to Z without going through the alphabet."
The Sharks have lost 12 straight against Boston for their longest losing streak ever against an opponent.
San Jose got some decent opportunities early but the Bruins took control of the game in the final two minutes of the opening period.
Marchand beat Kahkonen with a wrist shot from the circle for his first goal of the season.
On the next shift, van Riemsdyk jammed a puck under Kahkonen's pad during a scramble in front of the net to make it 2-0.
"I thought the first five minutes were good," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. "I thought the the next 10 kind of blah and then the last five were really good."
Pastrnak got a bit of luck to score in his third straight game late in the second period. He was on a 2-on-1 rush when a back-checking Marc Edouard-Vlasic poked the puck away but it deflected off Pastrnak's skate and went into the net.
ROUGH SCHEDULE
The Sharks were dealt a rough opening to the schedule with games against the four division winners from last season: Vegas, Colorado, Carolina and Boston.
This is the first time since the realignment to four divisions in 2013 that a team opened the season by playing all four defending division champs.
ROSTER SHUFFLE
Forward Kevin Labanc made his season debut for San Jose after being scratched the first four games. The Sharks placed D Radim Simek on waivers with the intent to send him back to the AHL.
UP NEXT
Bruins: At Los Angeles on Saturday night.
Sharks: At Nashville on Saturday night.