VANCOUVER – Patrick Marleau scored the winner and Martin Jones made 35 saves as the San Jose Sharks downed the undermanned Vancouver Canucks 4-1 on Saturday night.
Tomas Hertl, Mikkel Boedker and Logan Couture had the other goals for San Jose (36-18-7). Chris Tierney added two assists.
Daniel Sedin replied for Vancouver (26-29-6), which got 22 stops from Ryan Miller.
The Canucks were without five players because of the mumps, or symptoms associated with the highly contagious virus. Troy Stecher is the only confirmed case, according to the club, but fellow defencemen Chris Tanev and Nikita Tryamkin, along with forwards Mike Chaput and Markus Granlund have all shown symptoms.
Vancouver recalled four players from the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets for the game — defencemen Evan McEneny and Jordan Subban, as well as forwards Alexandre Grenier and Joseph Labate. The 22-year-old McEneny, an undrafted free agent signed in 2012, made his NHL debut, while Subban was a healthy scratch.
The Canucks then lost another defenceman when Luca Sbisa left after the second period with what the team called the flu. The team said in Friday’s release announcing the mumps outbreak that the virus can cause flu-like symptoms.
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