SAN JOSE — Marcus Sorensen and Aaron Dell are parlaying solid play into important ice time as the San Jose Sharks get ready for the stretch run.
Sorensen snapped a second-period tie with his first NHL goal, Dell made 17 saves and the Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 on Thursday night to end a six-game home losing streak to their Pacific Division rivals.
“He had another strong game for us,” San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said about Sorensen. “He did a lot of good stuff. I’m glad he got rewarded with the goal. He deserved it. He’s making a case to stick around.”
Mikkel Boedker and Logan Couture also scored for the Sharks, who have won four of five overall and earned at least one point in eight straight games.
Dell improved to 8-3-1 this season.
“Our plan is to play him,” DeBoer said. “There’s going to be a fine line there — how much we play him and how much we play Jonesy (Martin Jones). But he’s definitely going to play more than he’s played early in the year.”
That’s all Dell needed to hear.
“It’s always exciting to get to play a few more games,” he said. “I kind of prepared for that throughout the year.”
Bo Horvat scored for the Canucks, who have lost three in a row and five of six.
“Second period we were terrible and that cost us the game,” Vancouver defenseman Christopher Tanev said. “We didn’t battle hard enough. We were in our end the whole second period.”
Ryan Miller stopped 29 shots for the Canucks.
The road team had won the previous 12 games between the teams.
Vancouver grabbed the lead on Horvat’s power-play goal midway through the first period when he took a nice pass from Ben Hutton in front of the net.
Boedker tied it eight minutes later after Paul Martin saved the puck at the blue line and got it to Couture. Boedker hit a knuckler that floated over Miller’s left shoulder.
Sorensen scored by bouncing the puck off Miller’s pads into the net midway through the second. Couture added an insurance goal later in the period.
“They were hard on the puck in the second period,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “I thought they won all the battles. They got to the puck first. That put us in a bad spot.”
NOTES: Hutton has five assists in 11 games since returning from an injury. … Vancouver’s Sven Baertschi played for the first time since Feb. 7. He missed the previous 10 games. … Horvat has nine points over his last 11 games. … Couture has five points in his last five games. … Patrick Marleau has at least one point in four straight games. … Jannik Hansen, acquired from the Canucks two days ago, was not available for the Sharks.
UP NEXT
Canucks: At the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
Sharks: At the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
