Jones makes 26 saves, Sharks shut out Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Martin Jones made 26 saves for his first shutout of the season, and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-0 at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

Logan Couture scored twice, Lukas Radil had a goal and an assist, and Tomas Hertl and Radim Simek each had two assists for the Sharks (19-11-5), who extended their season-high winning streak to five. San Jose is 7-1-0 in its past eight games.
"It was a big win for us," Jones said. "I thought from a team standpoint it was probably one of our most solid games from start to finish; the way we defended, the way we kind of shut down the rush was solid tonight, so it was great."
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Wild highlights]
Devan Dubnyk made 21 saves for the Wild (17-14-2), who lost their second in a row.
Couture scored off a no-look pass from Radil at 9:49 of the second period for a 1-0 lead, and Hertl sent Joe Pavelski in for a breakaway goal 29 seconds later to increase the lead to 2-0 at 10:18.

Minnesota has allowed the first goal in 23 of 33 games this season.
"We're playing from behind a lot," Wild forward Eric Staal said. "We're playing from behind it feels like almost every game. It's too hard in this league to continually play from behind."
Couture scored from the slot 51 seconds into the third period to make it 3-0.
Radil scored into an empty net at 17:45 for the 4-0 final.
"I think everybody's better than early in the season," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "We're getting some timely saves too. I think it's a little bit of everything. … We're all better in here right now."

They said it

"When we play like that -- it's a team game, as silly as it sounds -- but when we play like that it makes everyone's job easier. We got the puck more, we're in the O-zone more, we're not giving up the rush chances that maybe we were the start of the year, so yeah, it's everybody stepping up their game and getting rewarded." -- Sharks goalie Martin Jones on the five-game winning streak
"It's hard. The reality is we give up the first goal the majority of the games. It's a tall task to continually have to climb your way back. I think any team is better when they have the lead and force the other team to make mistakes and capitalize the other way. Unfortunately for us it's too many times the other way where we're chasing the game." -- Wild forward Eric Staal

Need to know

Couture has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in his past 15 games. … Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson has seven assists in a six-game point streak. … San Jose defenseman Brent Burns had a three-game point streak end (five assists). ... It was Radil's first multipoint game in the NHL. … Wild forward Mikko Koivu had two shots in 12:59 after missing four games with an upper-body injury. … The Wild were shut out for the second time in six games.

What's next

Sharks:Host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Wild:At the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ATTSN-PT, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)