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After another subpar homestand, the San Jose Sharks appear to be in good position as they begin a road-heavy stretch in the schedule.
That's because the Sharks have won seven in a row away from home heading into Friday night's matchup with the struggling Anaheim Ducks.
San Jose swept a six-game trip before returning to the SAP Center and dropping two of three, including Tuesday's 5-1 loss to Pittsburgh. The Sharks are 10-3-0 on the road and 4-7-0 at home.
They outshot the Penguins 34-29 and scored a power-play goal for the fourth straight game, but trailed 2-0 after a pass deflected off defenseman Paul Martin's skate and went past Martin Jones before Matt Cullen banked a rebound from behind the net off Jones' pad and in.
"It's frustrating when you think you play well and you don't think it's a 5-1 game," Martin said. "There were some rebounds, some second-chance opportunities but it seemed like they were always there to slap it into the corner and make us start all over again."
The seven-game road win streak is the Sharks' longest since a nine-game run in 2009-10, and they went 2-0-1 in three visits to Anaheim last season. Friday begins a stretch of eight road games in the next 10 for San Jose.
The Ducks (9-12-5) have dropped three of four following Wednesday's 2-1 home defeat to Tampa Bay. The result was especially disappointing after Anaheim had its most complete effort of the season in a 4-0 win over visiting Vancouver on Monday.
The Lightning handed Anaheim just its second regulation loss in the last 11 at home, even with the Ducks holding a 28-14 shot advantage over the final two periods.
"If you're looking for territorial edge or any of that, I thought we outplayed them," coach Bruce Boudreau said. "But in the end, we've got to come up with the win, and it seems to be eluding us on a regular basis. I mean, we can talk about how well we're playing against good teams and doing the right things, but the two points is most necessary at this point."
Like the Sharks, Anaheim got a bad bounce when defenseman Cam Fowler's shot hit the post with 14 seconds left.
"There's a lot of good things that happened in that game, but when you give up two goals in the second period, it's tough," said right wing Corey Perry, who scored his ninth goal. "We were right there with them. If not for one bounce at the end of the game, it would have been a different story."
These teams have met twice in San Jose this season. Patrick Marleau scored two goals to give the Sharks a 2-0 victory Oct. 10 and Perry scored in Anaheim's 1-0 win Nov. 7.
Jones started both games for San Jose and stopped 43 of 44 shots, while Frederik Andersen was in net for the Ducks' loss.
Andersen has missed the last five games while dealing with the flu and John Gibson has started the past four, going 1-2-1 with a 2.00 goals-against average.
