Photo credit: @nbcbayarea

By Jerry Feitelberg

The San Jose Sharks continued to stay hot following a coaching staff reorganization, winning their fourth game of the last five against the New Jersey Devils Monday night at the SAP Center. Timo Meier scored twice and Radim Simek scored his first NHL goal to give the Sharks a 5-2 win over the Devils. Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl also had two-point nights for the Sharks.

San Jose looked like the weaker team in the early going after New Jersey scored on a fluke goal 12:05 into the period. Drew Stafford threw the puck on net from the goal line, finding daylight between Martin Jones and the post for a 1-0 lead.

San Jose hadn’t generated much offense to that point, not finding a shot on net for the majority of the first 10 minutes. That all changed after a heady play by Timo Meier. Meier stole the puck from a New Jersey skater entering the Sharks zone and went the other way, ultimately beating Keith Kinkaid from the right faceoff dot to tie the game with 4:09 left in the first.

Joe Pavelski scored with just under two minutes left in the period after Brenden Dillon’s point shot ricocheted off Kinkaid. The captain picked up the loose puck and slid it into the back of the net for his team-best 20th goal. Pavelski has now scored 20 goals in a season for the 10th time in his career.

Radim Simek picked up his first NHL goal 7:19 into the middle period, launching a point-shot through traffic for a 3-1 Sharks lead. Lukas Radil, a fellow rookie, picked up his first career assist after scoring his first goal over the weekend.

Andy Greene’s drive-by tip 11:01 into the second pulled the Devils within one goal before Meier’s second created some space. Joonas Donskoi fed Meier streaking up the wing, allowing the Swiss forward to once again show off his laser of a shot. Meier’s wrister beat Kinkaid glove side before bouncing off the back of the net and out with 5:08 left in the period.

Tomas Hertl added a power play goal after picked up a rebound in the slot eight seconds into the man-advantage with 5:38 left in the game to effectively ice the game. Martin Jones made 22 saves to preserve the win.

San Jose welcomes the Dallas Stars to the Shark Tank Thursday night, looking to continue the winning ways. Game time is 7:30 pm PST.