Sharks make it 11 straight

Milan Michalek scored on the opening shift, San Jose added 3 more goals in its highest-scoring period of the season, and the Sharks coasted to their franchise-record 11th straight victory, 4-1 over the visiting St. Louis Blues on Friday night.

Jeremy Roenick, Brian Campbell and Patrick Marleau also scored in a dominant 4-goal opening period that helped San Jose increase its lead in the Pacific Division over idle Dallas and Anaheim. The Sharks are 3 points ahead of the Stars and 4 in front of the Ducks, with two games in hand over both teams.

That's quite a turnaround from the end of last month when San Jose was 11 points behind Dallas. All it took to erase that was the longest winning streak in the NHL since New Jersey won its final 11 games of the 2005-06 season.