By Ivan Makarov

Having won seven out of the last eight games, San Jose Sharks continued to win on Tuesday day when they hosted the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. The game was never close, with home team winning 6-2 and earning seven out of the possible eight points during the four game home stand.

Sharks outshot the Leafs 48-21, have played in the Leafs zone for most of the game (after going 49-28 in face-offs circle), and put one of the more complete games they have played all season.

“We’ve been good during different times throughout the season,” said Joe Pavelski after the game when asked where this victory ranked among others. “We’ve been playing good at home. This was definitely one of them. We got on them early, and had the puck a lot. It was a solid win.”

Before Sharks got the big lead in the game, they had to endure one of the strangest first periods of the season.

Sharks played the way they usually play this season at home in the first period – dominating the play all over the ice. The shot total ended up being 14-6 in the first period in their favor, but they only went up 2-1 on the scoreboard. It could have been more, but Sharks’ good goal scored by Tommy Wingels was disallowed. The replay showed the puck nowhere near being frozen on the play, and going inside behind Toronto’s goaltender James Reimer, but the referees blew the whistle and after discussing it over, disallowed the goal.

However, Marc Eduard Vlasic and Brent Burns scored more goals that counted. Vlasic blasted a slap shot from near the face off circle after a great pass from Matt Nieto who spotted him open on the play. Brent Burns scored in front of the net assisted by Joe Thornton, and there was a wait between the time he scored and when the goal counted, as refereed discussed it between themselves. With loud boos from the crowd, and having disallowed Wingels’ goal just minutes before, they at last awarded the Sharks with the second goal.

The second period continued much like the first. Sharks had the puck more, they were playing with more desperation and they were creating all the chances. All this advantage resulted in two more goals. Tommy Wingels at last got the goal allowed, scoring his 15th on the season on a deflection from the shot by Justin Braun 6:54 into the period. Joe Pavelski got the Sharks lead to three goals when he scored just over a minute later, assisted by Joe Thornton, making it 4-1. Sharks had the chance to make the score even more in their favor, when they went on 5-on-3 power play towards the end of the second period for more than 90 seconds. But the players failed to produce a single shot during that stretch with 2-men advantage as Toronto killed off those penalties.

“We made adjustment or two between [first and second periods], and talked about using our energy, few more pucks to the net,” said Todd McLellan reflecting on what was the key turning point in the game. “Fortunately, [Toronto] played on their end a little bit longer. We had the short change. A lot of the times in the second period the long change is what’s talked about. When you’re on the offense, you have the short change, and can pin teams in. We were able to that.”

The third period seemed more like a formality at that point for the Sharks, having a three goal lead going into the third period. But they continued to play hard while rolling all four lines, and scoring goals – with Joe Pavelski and Marty Havlat getting on the scoreboard.

Besides the goals, the game also saw four fights, with Andrew Desjardins dropping the gloves twice – once against David Clarkson and the second time against Tim Gleason, while Mike Brown fought Troy Bodie early on in the game. Tommy Wingels earned his first “Gordy Howe” hat trick of the night (goal + assist + fight) in the third period when he fought Joffrey Lupul with three minutes left in the game.

Sharks will next play three games on the road, visiting Columbus, New York and Rhode Island before they return back to San Jose.