by By David Pollak San Jose Mercury News , Contra Costa Times

Douglas Murray had a more technical explanation for the fact he had just scored his first goal in 109 games and fellow defenseman Kent Huskins had chipped in his first goal as a Shark as San Jose stretched its winning streak to five games.

"I think contributions will come from the blue line when the team is playing well," Murray said. "It's all about coming out clean in our own zone. That means we can be the fourth man in the attack, putting pressure on them down low. That's when the blue line really gets involved."

A third goal came from the defense as Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored his second of the season, finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Patrick Marleau early in the third period, and Marleau himself put the game totally out of reach with a power-play goal at 11:12. Evgeni Nabokov made 25 saves as his record improved to 9-3-1.

Overall, coach Todd McLellan liked what he saw in the rare matinee game, not only because the bulk of the scoring didn't come from the usual suspects, but also because they were "grunt" goals.

"I thought to start the season we were a little too fine, trying to make too many cute plays, trying to be perfect, trying to be pretty," McLellan said. "You look at the goals tonight Stauby's goal and (Murray's) goal were goals where we wore other teams down in their defensive zone, cycling and banging and crashing. Once that happens, then the nice goals will come later on."

As hot as the Sharks have been, the Hurricanes have been equally cold as their streak without a victory reached nine games. Still, Carolina grabbed a 1-0 lead early in the second period when the San Jose defense couldn't keep the puck in the offensive zone and Hurricanes center Brandon Sutter scored on an odd-man rush.

But San Jose got that one back 77 seconds later when Huskins carried the puck into the Hurricanes' zone. Carolina goalie Cam Ward handled the initial shot easily but then deposited the puck behind his own net, where Huskins was heading. Given a second chance, the defenseman came around the other side and fired a shot that caromed off Ward and into the net at 4:05.

"It just came right back to me and I had all my momentum behind the net," Huskins said. "I kind of threw it back at the net and got a lucky bounce."

Staubitz's goal followed 82 seconds later at the end of a long cycle as he, Jody Shelley and rookie center Logan Couture controlled the puck deep in the Hurricanes' zone before Shelley threw it into the slot, where Staubitz got his stick on it as he was being knocked to the ice.

"That's the shift we need to have," he said. "It just shows us that if we can do that, it'll reward us."

Murray's goal came at the end of another cycle as he pinched in from the point and punched in a pass from center Joe Thornton. It was Murray's first goal since he scored against the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 21, 2008.

For the second consecutive game, McLellan was happy that his team came out strong, as slow starts had been a recurring problem.

"We looked fresh," he said. "We looked into the game."

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