Sharks’ Timo Meier is back to scoring, but is also excelling in another area

Any concerns that San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier might not be able to duplicate the career year he had last season following an unexpectedly tepid start last month are slowly being erased.

After collecting just one assist in his first nine games, Meier now has seven goals and five assists in his last seven, including a goal and an assist Friday in the Sharks’ 5-4 win over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

Meier’s assist came on Tomas Hertl’s game-winning goal early in the third period, and his five-game goal streak for the Sharks (4-9-3) going into Sunday’s game with the Minnesota Wild (7-6-1) at Xcel Energy Center matches a career-long, set in Oct. 2018.

Now, in the final season of a four-year, $24 million deal, Meier is on pace to match or surpass his 35-goal season from a year ago.

“Winning feels good,” said Meier, who is slated to become one of the NHL’s most notable restricted free agents next summer. “We’ve been in a lot of games where we came up short, and we want to learn from it and find ways to close out games like we did today.”

Just as impressive as the goal scoring has been Meier’s work without the puck.

Against the Stars, he stripped rookie Matej Blumel of the puck in the neutral zone, leading to some extended offensive zone time for the Sharks.

In the third period, with his team holding into a one-goal lead, Meier created another turnover inside the Sharks’ zone to set up his own breakaway but had his shot stopped by Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.

Before Saturday’s games, Meier was fourth in the NHL with 19 takeaways in 16 games, and his average of 3.64 takeaways per 60 minutes ranks as a career-high. He had 49 takeaways in 77 games last season.

“He’s played really well lately,” Sharks coach David Quinn said Thursday night after a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues. “The hounding of the puck and the tracking, causing those turnovers, certainly give you an opportunity to create offense. He’s done a really good job of that.”

POWER PLAY CLICKING: The Sharks’ power play went 1-for-2 on Friday courtesy of Alexander Barabanov’s first-period marker, and has now accounted for goals in six of the team’s last seven games.

The Sharks had scouted what the Stars did in faceoff coverage on the penalty kill. “We were able to beat them, find open ice in the middle,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said of the first power play try that resulted in Barabanov’s goal. “And then we found open face in the middle throughout the second one and had some good looks.”

The Sharks’ power play entered Saturday ranked 20th in the NHL at 20 percent, a major improvement from where the unit was late last month. After the Oct. 25 game with the Vegas Golden Knights, a 4-2 Sharks loss, the power play had connected on just two of their first 27 chances with the man advantage, or 7.4 percent.

HOWE HAT TRICK: Couture, in his 14th NHL season and 861st career game, earned his first career Gordie Howe hat trick, collecting a goal, an assist, and a fight — all before the start of the third period.

“The first, and probably the last,” Couture said of the feat named after Howe, one of the most dominant and feared players in NHL history.

Couture assisted on Barabanov’s power-play goal, scored his sixth of the season early in the second period, and then fought Stars captain Jamie Benn late in the second period. The fight came moments after a big hit Couture had laid on Ty Dellandrea.

“It’s something that just happened. I made a hit and (Benn) came over and asked me to go, so I thought I’d give it a try,” Couture told NBC Sports California after the game. “People back home are going to be texting me, (asking) me what the hell was I doing?”

Per SportsRadar, only six NHL players recorded their first Gordie Howe hat tricks later in their careers — Doug Gilmour (1,224 games), Ron Stewart (1,113), Nick Foligno (994), Kelly Buchberger (962), Jean Pronovost (941) and Jim McKenzie (863).

LINE SHIFT: Evgeny Svechnikov replaced Matt Nieto on the Sharks’ second line with Couture and Barabanov for the start of the second period Friday.

An explanation from Quinn for why he made the switch wasn’t available after the game, but a Nieto turnover late in the first period led to a tying goal from Jamie Benn with 20.4 seconds left before intermission. Nieto also might have had an opportunity to pick up Benn’s stick just before the goal.

Svechnikov scored in the first period, his third of the season, after heads-up plays from both Steven Lorentz and Oskar Lindblom to help set up the goal. Nieto has now gone six games without a point and has one goal and three assists in 16 games.