Sharks defeat Canucks for Boughner's first victory as coach

SAN JOSE -- Bob Boughner got his first win as San Jose Sharks coach, 4-2 against the Vancouver Canucks at SAP Center on Saturday.

Boughner replaced Peter DeBoer, who was fired on Wednesday. He lost his debut 6-3 to the New York Rangers on Thursday.
"I liked the way we played. We played with some poise," Boughner said. "Second period we took on too much, but in the third period we responded. Even though they were in our zone a little bit we didn't have too many breakdowns."
WATCH: [All Canucks vs. Sharks highlights]
Evander Kane and Logan Couture each had a goal and an assist, and Aaron Dell made 33 saves for the Sharks (16-17-2), who ended a season-long six-game winless streak (0-5-1).
"Deller was our best player," Boughner said. "That's what a goalie does in a win like that."
"It's good to get back on track," said Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who played his 1,000th NHL game. "Now some guys are feeling better, we're feeling better as a team. It's just one game so we've got to string some together."

Jake Virtanen and Bo Horvat scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves for the Canucks (16-13-4), who are 4-3-0 in the past seven games.
"The whole group didn't think we had a good first period, but it was obvious we dominated the last two periods," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "When you play that way and don't win, you're not going to be happy by any means."
Kane scored into an empty net at 18:39 of the third period to give San Jose a 3-1 lead before Horvat cut it to 3-2 at 19:31.
Couture scored into an empty net at 19:52 for the 4-2 final.
"It's a start," Sharks forward Timo Meier said. "There's a lot of things we still need to clean up, but it's a step in the right direction."
Tomas Hertl gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 10:50 of the first period, scoring from the left side of the crease off a pass from Joe Thornton.

"We haven't had many leads this year so it was nice to start with the lead," Hertl said.
Meier scored his 11th goal of the season at 7:09 of the third period on a give-and-go with Kane to make it 2-0.
"He put it in my wheelhouse and I was able to put full power into it," Meier said.
Virtanen cut the lead to 2-1 48 seconds later, scoring inside the far post from the left face-off circle.

"We were slow in the first period and played well in the second and third," Virtanen said. "It [stinks] trying to come back. They were good. They came to win."
Vlasic is the 17th defenseman in NHL history to play 1,000 games with one team and joins Patrick Marleau (1,523) and Thornton (1,069) as the only Sharks players to reach the milestone.

They said it

"Give their goalie some credit. He played well and their team was strong around the net." -- Canucks coach Travis Green
"Deller goes in net next game and [Martin] Jones continues to work with [goalie coach Evgeni] Nabokov and get his game to where it needs to be." -- Sharks coach Bob Boughner

Need to know

With his 1,077th NHL assist, Thornton moved to within two of Adam Oates for seventh on the all-time list. … Vancouver forward Brandon Sutter returned to the lineup and played 10:28 after missing 13 games with a groin injury. … The Sharks were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and have killed 52 of 56 at home. … Dell has a 6-1 career record against the Canucks. … Couture has 40 points (20 goals, 20 assists) in 41 games against the Canucks.

What's next

Canucks:At the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Sharks:Host the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV)