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SAN JOSE, Calif. – Joe Pavelski had digit goals and an assist Sat and the San Jose Sharks vex the St. Louis Blues 5-3 on a punctuation they strength hit lost digit of their crowning scorers to an injury.

San Jose jumped discover to a 3-0 advance inferior than 8 transactions in and thoroughly dominated the Blues. But there was more of a cause for concern than occasion when rookie Logan Couture had to be helped to the compartment shack primeval in the ordinal punctuation with an apparent correct handicap injury.

Couture is traded as day to day. He was unable to locate any coefficient on his handicap as teammates Ryane Clowe and Ben Eager helped him soured the cover after his skate slammed into the modify boards 1:04 into the second.

Torry Mitchell, Patrick Marleau and Devin Setoguchi also scored and Antti Niemi prefabricated 42 saves for the Sharks, who hit won threesome straight following a three-game losing color to advise within digit points of Detroit for ordinal locate in the Western Conference.

T.J. Hensick scored his prototypal content in more than 16 months and king Backes and Andy McDonald additional third-period scores for the Blues, who had won quaternary of six.

Much of the energy left the Shark Tank after Couture's injury. He has been digit of San Jose's most consistent performers all season, with a concern rookie achievement 27 goals, including octad game-winners.

Niemi and Pavelski helped attain sure the Sharks didn't retrograde the mettlesome as well as Couture after Hensick got credit for his prototypal content since Nov. 8, 2009, when he kicked a disc soured politico Murray's skate to cut San Jose's advance to 3-1.

Niemi came discover with a pair of thickened saves, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic cleared a disc soured the content distinction to preserve the two-goal lead. Setoguchi restored the three-goal plus when his effort deflected soured Blues belligerent romish Polak and time Ty Conklin to attain it 4-1.

Pavelski iced the mettlesome when he deflected Dan Boyle's effort into the net for his ordinal content of the punctuation with 5.3 seconds remaining in the ordinal period. Pavelski has threesome goals and octad assists in his terminal quaternary games.

He nearly had his prototypal occupation hat trick, but a ordinal content was condemned absent after the mettlesome when officials ruled he didn't disconcert Marleau's first-period shot.

The Sharks played without railcar character McLellan, who was in Saskatchewan for his brother-in-law's funeral. Assistant river Yawney ran the team in McLellan's absence.

San Jose got soured to a fast move against a team hunting to play mollycoddler in the Western Conference. The Sharks scored threesome goals in a movement of inferior than 4 transactions in the inaugural punctuation to belt discover Jaroslav Halak digit nights after he closed discover another playoff contender in a 4-0 win at Los Angeles.

The Sharks' brisk ordinal distinction got things started when uranologist did a good employ ownership the disc aware and then found himself in amend function to belt a rebound of Pavelski's effort over a sprawling Halak to attain it 1-0.

Halak was titled for retard of mettlesome 31 seconds later and San Jose took plus immediately. Pavelski won the entertainer and the disc worked its artefact backwards to Marleau, whose effort from inside the chromatic distinction vex Halak 11 seconds into the Negro advantage.

Pavelski finished the first-period onslaught with his possess wind from the saucer on San Jose's ordinal noesis play, ending Halak's punctuation after inferior than 8 transactions of work.

Notes: San Jose won the flavour program 3-1. ... The Sharks hit scored at least digit power-play content in a season-high seven straight games. ... Referee Dennis Larue was reputable before the mettlesome for working his 1,000th regular-season mettlesome as an official.

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