CSN Bay Area

SAN JOSE -– A number of facets of the Sharks’ overall game declined immediately after the Christmas break.

That includes the penalty killing, which sat at ninth in the NHL with an 84.4 percent success rate headed into a game on Dec. 27 in Los Angeles.

The Kings scored a pair of power-play goals that night, though, and the Sharks managed to kill off just 12 of 20 opponent power plays over a seven-game stretch. Not coincidentally, they lost four of the seven games in regulation.

Lately, though, the penalty kill has been much more effective, and over the last three games the Sharks are a perfect 9-for-9, allowing just three shorthanded shots on goal in 13:23 against the Maple Leafs, Coyotes and Rangers.

[KURZ: Sharks realize they need to play better at home]

On Thursday, the Sharks killed off all three Maple Leafs advantages, not allowing a single shot to get through in more than four minutes of a 3-1 win.

“The last few games it’s been good. It’s helped us win games,” Joe Pavelski said. “Yesterday it kept that game right where it needed to be. It gives us momentum when we do it right, and if they do score or they get one on it, it’s just about getting back to basics and really taking care of it the next one out.”

In his morning meeting on Friday, head coach Todd McLellan made specific mention of the team’s effective kills.

“One of the first things we pointed out this morning was being aggressive at the right time with four players,” said the coach. “The timing and the aggressiveness, everything was in sync with it over the last few games. … Right now the players are doing a good job of being aggressive at the right time but as a unit, not just one.”

The penalty kill has been a strength for the last two seasons. In 2013-14 the Sharks finished sixth in the NHL with an 84.9 percent success rate, and in the shortened 2013 campaign it was nearly identical (85.0 percent, sixth in the NHL).

In 2011-12, the Sharks’ worst regular season over the past 11 years, the penalty kill finished 29th in the NHL at just 76.9 percent. It was a key reason the St. Louis Blues breezed to an easy five-game first round win over San Jose in the playoffs, and one of the main motives behind hiring Larry Robinson as an assistant coach that summer.

The Sharks penalty-killers have remained mostly the same from last season other than Brad Stuart, who ate up a good chunk of minutes there but was traded to Colorado. The other regulars include Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Brent Burns, Justin Braun, and forwards like Pavelski, Logan Couture and Tommy Wingels.

‘It’s a mentality,” Couture said. “A lot of the times goals we were giving up we were making mistakes, and giving the power play too much time. Teams and players are too good in this league. If you give them time they’re going to make nice plays and score goals.”

There was also a bit of a snowball effect during the downturn.

“Those two minutes feel like three or four minutes,” Pavelski said. “You go out there and say you’re going to get it done, and all of a sudden one slips by or hits a skate and goes right to a guy.

“There are a few things we can control out there. Guys have done a good job taking it upon themselves to get it back on track.”