Wild shut out by Sharks in Evason debut as coach

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Dean Evason lost his debut as coach of the Minnesota Wild, 2-0 to the San Jose Sharks at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

"You'd like it to be a little more positive," said Evason, who was promoted Friday after Bruce Boudreau was fired. "But, yeah, it's like once you get back in that spot when you've been there before, it feels right. It feels good. So it was nice to be behind the bench like that again."
Martin Jones made 39 saves, and Dylan Gambrell and Melker Karlsson scored for the Sharks (26-28-4), who defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 on Friday, when they lost defenseman Erik Karlsson for the season with a broken thumb. San Jose is 4-1-0 in its past five games.
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"I think you've got to give credit to the players. Facing the injuries that we are facing, I think that little bit of adversity and [Jones] coming in there and doing the job, I know they wanted to play hard for him," Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. "I thought that we really defended well. We gave up 39 shots. They threw a lot at us. But I thought we played hard down low. I thought [Jones] made the saves that he had to.
"I think it's a heck of a last couple days. Two tough buildings with teams that are fighting hard for a [Stanley Cup Playoff] spot."

Alex Stalock made 19 saves in his third straight start for the Wild (27-24-7), who have lost two in a row and three of four.
"Obviously you want to win, but right now, it's about us in that room," Stalock said. "That's the message we got yesterday, is it's all about the guys in this room. Right now, we've got to win games.
"Everybody knows this time of year is a tough time of year, but we're still professional hockey players. We've got to play games and win games."
Brent Burns' shot deflected off Gambrell for a 1-0 lead at 3:08 of the third period. Burns extended his point streak to five games (six points; two goals, four assists).
Melker Karlsson scored into an empty net with 15 seconds remaining for the 2-0 final.
The Sharks also were without forward Evander Kane, who was suspended three games by the NHL Department of Player Safety for elbowing Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk on Friday.
"I think we just keep doing what we're doing," Gambrell said of being without Kane and Erik Karlsson. "Guys are really coming together in the locker room. Really supporting each other on the ice. Just working for each other."

They said it

"Getting the points (in Winnipeg and Minnesota) was huge. I think the way we got them speaks good for how we've been playing, and we've got to continue it. ... There's things that we can do better, but we'll take the points." -- Sharks forward Patrick Marleau
"We're one game at a time. One game at a time. We didn't get the job done tonight. We'll prepare for [the Vancouver Canucks] starting tomorrow. Every game is extremely important." -- Wild coach Dean Evason

Need to know

It was Jones' first win since Dec. 28, 6-1 against the Philadelphia Flyers. He is 14-17-2 this season. ... Sharks forward Timo Meier's point streak ended at four games (three goals, three assists). ... Evason coached Milwaukee of the American Hockey League for six seasons.

What's next

Sharks: Host the Florida Panthers on Monday (4 p.m. ET; NBCSA, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Wild: At the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SNP, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)