Hertl's hat trick leads Sharks to huge win over Flames

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The Sharks' offense came to life Tuesday night when they needed it most. 

Sharks' centerman Tomas Hertl delivered a hat trick that ignited San Jose's offense, helping the Sharks overcome a 3-1 deficit to beat the Calgary Flames 5-3 at SAP Center.

Hertl's three-score game was the breakout performance he needed after a frustrating start to the season. 

"Yeah, he was frustrated for a few weeks there," coach Bob Boughner said of Hertl. "Getting chances but not putting it in. He had a talk the other day and good players do that and he's a heck of a player in this league. You knew it was going to come, just like [Nick Bonino] a few weeks ago when we were talking about it. You don't play that long in the league and have that much success and all of a sudden a switch goes off."

"Every year you play a lot of games, that's how it works," Hertl told reporters. "Sometimes when you try even harder, things go against (you) and sometimes you get a bad game. Then you get hot and everything is just coming in. You just play hard and everything will come. That's what I try to do and I'm happy that it worked tonight."

Scoring is contagious, as fellow centerman Nick Bonino can attest. The 33-year-old had scored four goals in his previous seven games heading into Tuesday night's game against Calgary. Hertl, on the other hand, has scored four goals in just two games. 

"Every player in this league goes through ups and downs," Logan Couture said of Hertl. "When he's hot, he's so good and so important for our team. That goal in Columbus was such a big goal for him to let him feel good about his game and good about himself. Tonight it looked like he had about 20-30 pounds lifted off him. It was good to see the puck go in the net for him."

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With a red-hot Hertl and an offense riding high on a huge comeback victory over the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, the Sharks will look to carry this momentum throughout a lengthy seven-game homestand. 

San Jose will face another test Thursday night against the Minnesota Wild at SAP Center. 

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