The Sharks missed a chance to build more of a cushion in the Pacific Division standings Sunday night before they begin their bye week.
As has been the case four other times this month, the loss came after regulation time.
Brad Marchand scored with 2:24 left in overtime as the Sharks lost, 2-1, to the Boston Bruins on Sunday at SAP Center.
Prior to Sunday, the Sharks had lost in shootout to the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 4 and in overtime to Buffalo on Feb. 7, Philadelphia on Feb. 11 and most recently, Florida on February 15.
The Sharks will enter their five-day break with a four-point cushion over the second-place Edmonton Oilers.
Patrick Marleau scored the Sharks’ only goal, netting his 21st this season and the 502nd of his NHL career with 2:23 to go in the second period.
On a 4-on-4 situation, a shot from Brent Burns went off the leg of Torey Krug right to Marleau, who had a mostly open net as Tuukka Rask was unable to get over in time.
The Sharks allowed the first goal on home ice for the third straight game as Ryan Spooner was left alone right beside Martin Jones.
A shot by Adam McQuaid toward the Sharks’ net was collected by Jimmy Hayes, who spun around and put a shot wide. The puck came off the end boards right to an open Spooner, who tapped it in for his ninth goal of the season at the 11:05 mark of the first
period.
Joe Thornton remained on the cusp of perhaps his most historic achievement as he’s still just two assists away from 1,000 for his NHL career. The Sharks’ next game is Feb. 25 in Vancouver.
Thornton had 285 assists in seven-plus seasons with the Bruins from 1997-2005. Since coming to the Sharks on Nov. 30, 2005 in the biggest trade in team history, Thornton has 713 assists, including 34 this season.
Thornton entered Sunday on a five-game point streak. He had assists in four straight games and scored Feb. 9 against the Bruins at TD Garden.
The Sharks did not make any changes to their forward group from Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes, as Nikolay Goldobin dressed for his second straight game. Goldobin played 11:53 against the Coyotes and finished with four shots on goal, but was a spectator in the third period as coach Pete DeBoer shuffled his lines.
Melker Karlsson played on the second line with Marleau and Logan Couture and Chris Tierney played with Tomas Hertl and Joel Ward on the third line. Goldobin had 7:46 of ice time through two periods. Mikkel Boedker, who was also benched for the third period, had 9:13 of ice time through 40 minutes.