Jones makes 39 saves, Sharks shut down Hurricanes

SAN JOSE -- Martin Jones made 39 saves, and Timo Meier had a goal and two assists for the San Jose Sharks in a 5-1 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes at SAP Center on Wednesday.

Meier, who returned to the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury, scored his 14th goal of the season.
"It felt great," Meier said. "You don't want to be sitting out watching games with an injury. For me it was important to get healthy. I had a lot of energy today and we played a great game overall."
WATCH: [All Hurricanes vs. Sharks highlights]
Joe Thornton had three assists for the Sharks (14-10-5) to give him 1,038 NHL assists, two shy of tying Marcel Dionne for 10th place on the all-time list.
Barclay Goodrow, Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski and Marcus Sorensen also scored, and Kevin Labanc had two assists for San Jose.
"We're coming off the road, I was a little worried about our energy the first game back," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "But we got off to a quick start, got that first goal, which was huge. I thought we had some bounces tonight which we haven't gotten a lot of lately. And [Jones] was great."
Lucas Wallmark scored for the Hurricanes (12-11-4), who lost their third straight game (0-2-1) and have scored two or fewer goals in five straight. Curtis McElhinney made 18 saves.
"We've played good enough to win and we don't get any results," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "That's hard, it's hard on the guys. It's been a weird year for this. It was a 5-1 game and you think, 'Wow, that's a terrible game.' I didn't see it that way. Maybe I'm wrong, I have to look at it again but it certainly didn't feel like that."

Jones has won back-to-back games, making the save on 79 of 81 shots.
"I feel good in the net," Jones said. "I think when we play like that it's the real Grade-A chances we've limited the last couple games. I thought I made some good saves tonight, but there wasn't too many where I really had to steal any."
Goodrow put the Sharks ahead 1-0 at 3:44 of the first period when he took a pass from Labanc and scored on a wrist shot from the right circle.
Hertl made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 10:10 when he redirected a pass from Labanc into an open net from the crease.
"We've got to show some resilience as a team to kind of stick with it and get it back to even," Carolina defenseman Justin Faulk said.
Meier scored at 8:42 of the second period, increasing San Jose's lead to 3-0. He redirected Radim Simek's shot from the point. It was Simek's first NHL point in his second game.
"You try to be a difference-maker," Meier said. "You try to do whatever you can to help the team win. Obviously I've gained some confidence."

Pavelski made it 4-0 at 15:02 when his shot deflected off the stick of Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal in the slot and past McElhinney.
Wallmark scored a power-play goal at 18:31, cutting San Jose's lead to 4-1.
Sorensen scored his fifth goal of the season at 15:43 of the third to make it 5-1.

They said it

"I feel like we're pretty much doing everything we can. We're getting enough opportunities. The hard part is we're going to have to stick together and stick with the game plan because it's easy to go away when it's not working at all as far as the results. That's the tough part that we're going to have to manage." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
"He's been phenomenal these last two games. If he keeps that rolling it's huge for us. We gave up a few too many Grade As but he was there when we needed him." -- Sharks defenseman Justin Braun on goaltender Martin Jones

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Need to know

Staal left in the third period with an upper-body injury. Brind'Amour did not have an update. … Carolina forward Micheal Ferland missed his third straight game with a concussion. ... Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a lower-body injury. He had two shots and three blocked shots in 15:06. ... Pavelski has seven points (five goals, two assists) in a five-game point streak. … Thornton played his 1,513th NHL game and is one shy of tying Steve Yzerman for 18th place on the all-time list. … Sharks forward Logan Couture has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his past nine games.

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What's next

Hurricanes: At the Anaheim Ducks on Friday (10 p.m. ET; PRIME, FS-CR, NHL.TV)
Sharks:At the Dallas Stars on Friday (8 p.m. ET; SNE, SNP, TVAS, FS-SW, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)