Brock Nelson scored, and Robin Lehner made 37 saves for the Islanders (3-4-0), who finished 1-3-0 on their four-game road trip.
"I thought our battle level wasn't as good as it needed to be," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "You look at the first three goals, two turnovers, one at our blue one, one inside our blue line. They turned it into transitions and then the 4-on-4. It was a battle, and we didn't have what I call layers of support on that battle and we just made poor decisions."
The Sharks took a 2-1 lead at 4:59 of the second period on Donskoi's goal from the crease. Antti Suomela intercepted a pass and was stopped from close range, but he got his own rebound and sent the puck from below the goal line to a wide-open Donskoi.
Burns' first goal of the season extended the lead to 3-1 at 13:50 of the second during a 4-on-4 situation. Burns won a puck battle along the right boards, took it to the net and scored on a backhand from in front of the crease. The goal extended Burns' point streak to five games (one goal, six asssists). It was the first goal of the season by a Sharks defenseman.
"We're going to get more," DeBoer said of goals from his defensemen. "Erik Karlsson's going to score. We're going to get production there. It's not like they're not getting shots or looks, so I'm not concerned about that."
Couture scored on Hertl's rebound at 4:32 of the third period to give the Sharks a 4-1 lead.
"I think we played pretty well tonight," said Couture, who has a three-game point streak (four goals, two assists). "I think all facets of our game was good. Special teams was good even though we didn't score on the power play. I thought we created some good looks. Obviously, the 5-on-5 game was good. We could have had a lot more than four. Goaltending was terrific. [Jones] has been great on this homestand. We're a tough team to beat when we're playing like that."
Meier extended his NHL career high point streak to five games when he scored from close range to make it 1-0 at 7:59 of the first period.
The Islanders tied it 1-1 at 16:59 of the first on Nelson's wrist shot from the right face-off circle.
"This is a tough building to play in, and they didn't have that real dominant first period that they usually have," Islanders forward Matt Martin said. "For the most part in the first, it was real boring; in this building, I guess in some ways you take that as a win. We were able to go 1-1 into the intermission and then a couple costly mistakes by us and then we've got to find a way to respond."
