Hertl, Sharks spoil Talbot's debut with Flames

SAN JOSE -- Tomas Hertl had a shorthanded goal and an assist for the San Jose Sharks in a 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames at SAP Center on Sunday.

Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc scored, and Martin Jones made 32 saves for San Jose, which won its second straight after an 0-4-0 start. Logan Couture had two assists.
"I don't think the games have been perfect; we can still improve here," Jones said. "But we've limited the high-danger turnovers."
WATCH: [All Flames vs. Sharks highlights]
Cam Talbot made 17 saves in his debut with Calgary, which has lost three of its past four games (1-2-1).
"I thought that was our best game of the road trip," Talbot said. "I thought we battled hard all night and probably deserved a better result."
The Sharks got the first goal of the game for the first time this season when Meier opened the scoring at 3:04 of the first period before Labanc made it 2-0 at 10:13.
"It was nice to score first for once," Couture said.

Hertl was held without a point in San Jose's first five games, and Meier had no goals and one assist. They're expected to be big contributors to an offense looking to make up for the loss of forwards Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi and Gustav Nyquist to unrestricted free agency.
"You could feel the weight coming off Timo and Tommy's shoulders," Couture said. "It's not easy to start the season and you haven't scored for a few games. You start thinking about it every time you're on the ice."
Elias Lindholm scored for Calgary at 6:43 of the second period to make it 2-1. Flames coach Bill Peters said he thought the Flames were about to tie it, but Hertl's shorthanded goal made it 3-1.
"It's 2-1 at a huge time in the game," Peters said. "We just had a breakaway. Jones made a save on (Mikael) Backlund, then [Sean Monahan] hits the post and it's 2-1. We're on the power play, and they go down and make it 3-1."

Calgary went 0-for-4 on the power play in addition to giving up the shorthanded goal.
"We needed something out of the power play for sure and didn't get it here tonight," Peters said.
Patrick Marleau had an assist in
his first home game back in San Jose
. He played his first 19 NHL seasons with the Sharks and the past two for the Toronto Maple Leafs before agreeing to a one-year contract Oct. 8.
Jones was 0-3 with a 4.56 goals-against average and an .854 save percentage in his first three starts.

They said it

"Yeah, not even close; for me, it is for sure [Backlund's best game]. Now we've got clean up the face-off circle for [Backlund]. [He] hasn't been as good as he needs to be there, he's aware of that, knows that and he'll work on it." -- Flames coach Bill Peters on center Mikael Backlund
"It hasn't been an ideal start, but I feel my game is right there. I've felt pretty good in the net despite the results. I'm just sticking with it and making sure I'm working hard in practice." -- Sharks goalie Martin Jones

Need to know

Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau played his 400th NHL game and did not score for the second time this season. … Defenseman Mark Giordano led Calgary in ice time (26:08). … Labanc has six goals in his NHL career against Talbot; he does not have more than two against anyone else. … Jones is 6-0-0 with a 1.81 GAA and .947 save percentage in his past six starts against the Flames.

What's next

Flames: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN360, NBCSP, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCA, FS-CR, NHL.TV)