(SportsNetwork.com) - The powerful San Jose Sharks will aim for a fourth win in five games when they visit the Ottawa Senators for Sunday's battle at Canadian Tire Centre.
With a 9-1-1 record, the Sharks are leading the NHL with 19 points and the club is coming off Saturday's 2-0 triumph in Montreal. The victory followed San Jose's first regulation loss of the season, a 2-1 setback in Boston on Thursday.
Logan Couture lit the lamp twice and Antti Niemi turned away all 22 shots he faced to lead the Sharks to the road win over the Canadiens. Niemi earned his second shutout of the season, both of which have come in his last three games, but backup Alex Stalock will get the start on Sunday. Stalock has seen action in three NHL games but this will mark his first career start.
Patrick Marleau assisted on both goals, while Joe Thornton and Tyler Kennedy each had a helper as San Jose posted its third win in four and second during the first three tilts of a five-game road trip.
"We played patient enough to wait for our breaks, and defensively it was a full team commitment," said Sharks coach Todd McLellan. "It wasn't just eight, nine or 10 guys going, everybody did their thing coming back."
The Sharks played their third straight game without forward Brent Burns, who has been sidelined since getting hit in the face with a puck on Oct. 19 in Calgary. Burns, who has four goals and four assists this season, is expected to sit again on Sunday.
San Jose, which will close its road trip Wednesday in Los Angeles, improved its road record to 4-1-1 with Saturday's win.
The Senators have lost two of their last three games and last played on Friday when they dropped a 2-1 regulation decision against visiting Anaheim. Frederik Andersen stopped 26-of-27 shots in his first career start and Ryan Getzlaf notched a goal and an assist to lift the Ducks to the road win over the Sens.
Mike Zibanejad scored the lone Ottawa goal, while Craig Anderson made 26 saves in the loss.
The Senators fell to 0-2 against Anaheim this season. They also dropped a 4-1 decision in Orange County on Oct. 13 in a game that saw the Ducks rack up club-record 56 shots on goal.
"They're real fast, they're real quick, they didn't give us a lot of time and space to do anything," Senators head coach Paul MacLean said of the Ducks. "I thought for the most part, they were better than we were."
Ottawa fell to 1-2-0 as the host this season and is completing a brief two- game homestand on Sunday. The Sens will visit Chicago on Tuesday before playing seven of eight on home ice to begin November.
The Sharks have won five of the last six meetings against the Senators and Ottawa has dropped three in a row in this series on home ice.
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