San Jose, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Brent Burns netted his first-career hat trick to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues from SAP Center.
Burns lit the lamp twice as part of a four-goal first period for San Jose and added a power-play goal in the third. The Sharks have won four games in a row and seven of eight.
"We knew it was going to be a big game against these guys," said Burns. "Two teams that we both feel were at the top of our game, so it was big. It was pretty special."
Joe Thornton, Tommy Wingels and Tomas Hertl also scored in the victory while Antti Niemi stopped 21-of-24 shots he faced in net.
Ian Cole, David Backes and Jaden Schwartz scored for St. Louis, which had its five-game winning streak come to an end.
"It's obviously not acceptable, regardless of what time of day or what holiday it was the day before," said Cole. "It's not acceptable to come with the start that we did."
Brian Elliott allowed four goals in the first period before giving way to Jaroslav Halak, who yielded just one more tally over the next two periods before Hertl's empty-netter in the final minute.
A minute after Schwartz made it a 4-3 contest midway through the third period, Burns capped his stellar performance by carving through the defense and ripping a shot past a screened Halak. Hertl added an empty-netter with 46 seconds left for the final margin.
Cole scored the lone goal of the second period to put St. Louis on the board after the Sharks went up 4-0 after the first. After Halak came up with a stop on one end following Cole's turnover, a 3-on-2 advantage the other way led to his first tally of the season.
Backes scored on the power-play two minutes into the third for a 4-2 score, and Schwartz converted a feed from Vladimir Sobotka on an odd-man rush before Burns put the game away.
An interception by Logan Couture 30 seconds into the contest created the first goal of the contest. Couture snuck the puck to Patrick Marleau at the net, and his one-touch pass to Burns created the goal.
Thornton, who had four points in the only previous meeting between the two clubs, made it 2-0 3:01 into the first and Burns scored again midway through the frame. Wingels capped the crucial first by skating down the right side and sneaking a shot past Elliott.
Game Notes
Thornton and Joe Pavelski had two assists apiece while Couture had three helpers in the victory ... St. Louis won 56 percent of the face-offs ... The Sharks broke a three-game home losing streak to St. Louis.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.