Joe Thornton had two goals and two assists and Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture both scored twice as the Sharks used a strong first period to help get past the St. Louis Blues, 6-3, on Monday night at Scottrade Center.
Hertl scored two of the Sharks’ three goals in the first 13 minutes and Couture added an even strength goal midway through the second period as the Sharks won their third game on their five-game trip.
Thornton had two assists in the first period and scored his 13th and 14th goals of the season. His first came 7:26 into the third period and gave the Sharks a 5-2 lead. With the Blues attempting to break out of their own zone, Thornton stripped Joel Edmundson of the puck then backhanded a shot through goalie Jake Allen’s legs.
Thornton added an empty-net goal with 1:25 to go, and now has 55 points on the season and a league-leading 28 points since he had two assists in the Sharks’ 7-0 win over Toronto on Jan. 9. His surge mirrors the success of the Sharks, who, including that game, are 14-3-3 in the last seven-plus weeks.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic also had two assists as the Sharks improved their Western Conference-best road record to 21-9-2, matching their road win total of a season ago.
Sharks defenseman Matt Tennyson was injured early in Monday’s game after he was checked hard into the boards by Blues forward Ryan Reaves behind the San Jose net. The hit from Reaves caused Tennyson’s head to bounce off the glass. Tennyson’s head then slammed against the ice as he fell down.
Tennyson remained on the ice for several seconds, and Reaves received a five minute major for boarding and a game misconduct with 11:23 left in the first period.
Tennyson was playing in his 28th game of the season, and his sixth straight after Brenden Dillon suffered an upper body injury Feb. 9 against Chicago.
Already ahead 1-0 on an even strength goal by Hertl 4:44 into the game, the Sharks scored twice with Reaves in the box. Hertl scored around the net with 9:42 to go in the first right after shots on goal by Vlasic and Joonas Donskoi.
Couture then scored on another play around the net, as his shot from in close slid under Blues goalie Brian Elliott and over the goal line to give the Sharks a 3-0 lead with 7:01 left in the first. Elliott suffered a lower body injury on the play and left the game.
The Sharks recorded 16 of the games’ first 18 shots, but St. Louis got back into the game with consecutive power play goals by David Backes and Vladimir Tarasenko, with Tarasenko’s goal coming with 8:35 left in the second period. But Couture scored 20 second later to give the Sharks another two goal lead.

Capitals 3, Coyotes 2
Alex Ovechkin and Mike Richards scored third-period goals 26 seconds apart, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 Monday for their fourth straight win.
Ovechkin broke a 1-1 tie at 8:17 of the third when his wrister from the left circle beat Arizona goalie Louis Domingue to the short side. It was the 39th of the season and 10th in the past eight games for the NHL goal-scoring leader, who added an assist.
Richards scored his first goal as a member of the Capitals in his 15th game at 8:43. Evgeny Kuznetsov also had a goal and an assist for Washington, which has won nine of 10 overall and is 17-1-1 in its last 19 home games.
Kevin Connauton and Connor Murphy scored for Arizona.