Sharks score 4 in 3rd, pull away from Sabres

BUFFALO -- William Eklund, Will Smith, Tyler Toffoli and Timothy Liljegren each had a goal and an assist for the San Jose Sharks in a 6-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

Shakir Mukhamadullin and Jake Walman each had two assists, and Alexandar Georgiev made 20 saves for the Sharks (17-37-9), who have won two straight after an eight-game losing streak.

Georgiev, who made 25 saves in a 3-2 shootout win at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday, started for the second straight night with Vitek Vanecek backing up for trade related reasons.

“You never want to accept losing because that's just building bad habits,” Sharks rookie forward Macklin Celebrini said. “But, I mean, it definitely it feels good when you start getting wins. You start feeling like you're getting rewarded for your work, and especially a road trip like this. We've been on kind of a grind throughout Canada and then here, so I think just getting these last two wins, it just kind of helps our group get more energized.”

JJ Peterka had a goal and an assist, and Tage Thompson scored for the Sabres (24-30-5), who are 0-3-1 after winning six of their previous seven. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 22 saves.

“Too many passengers,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “They won the compete, they won the puck-play game. Our puck play was awful. Just too many guys took the night off.”

Liljegren gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 1:01 of the second period when he took a cross-ice feed from Eklund and scored with a wrist shot that went bar down and trickled over the goal line. The shot was initially ruled no goal and play continued until a video review initiated by the NHL Situation Room showed the puck had completely crossed the goal line.

Peterka tied it 1-1 at 5:13 with a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Rasmus Dahlin on the power play.

Nico Sturm put the Sharks back in front 2-1 at 18:22. Collin Graf’s cross-ice pass attempt down low hit Dylan Cozens’ skate and bounced to Sturm, who roofed a shot over Luukkonen from the left hash marks.

Eklund then snuck a sharp-angled wrist shot from the goal line by Luukkonen’s left arm to push it to 3-1 at 2:19 of the third period.

“We're playing to the buzzer, we're playing whistle to whistle, we're playing for 60 minutes,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “No one takes a shift off no matter what the score is. We're never gonna stop and we're gonna keep playing, and I think that, as a coach, is what I look for. Yeah, the goals and the assist and the points are great, but those are the things when you start building the culture is what you start seeing.”

Thompson’s 30th of the season, a one-timer from the left circle, pulled the Sabres to within 3-2 at 6:55, but Celebrini beat Luukkonen from the right circle inside the far post to push the lead to 4-2 at 7:58.

“Huge goal,” Warsofsky said. “And that's what I think we'll see in the future for this young man. I thought he was really good tonight. Him and Will were really good.”

Smith extended it to 5-2 when he scored blocker side from the left circle on a 3-on-1 rush at 12:49.

Toffoli scored an empty-net goal at 18:01 for the 6-2 final.

“It doesn’t matter what happens throughout the year,” Thompson said. “There’s no excuses. Everybody is playing 82 games. Everybody has a tough schedule. You can sit here and try to make all the excuses in the world, but when you lace them up in the locker room and go out you better battle, you better compete. We didn’t. We took tonight off.”

NOTES: Smith is the second Sharks rookie to reach 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) on the season, joining Celebrini (45 points; 19 goals, 26 assists). It’s the third season in San Jose history in which the team has had multiple rookies hit the mark, and the first since 2006-07. … Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic blocked a Buffalo shot in the first period to pass Mark Giordano for most blocked shots (2,165) since the NHL began tracking the stat in 2005-06. … Peterka has eight points (three goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak.