Sharks 6, Blues 3
Brent Burns recorded his first career hat trick and added an assist as host San Jose scored four times in the first period and held on for its fourth straight victory.
Captain Joe Thornton collected a goal and two assists to extend his point streak to four games for the Sharks, who have accounted for half of St. Louis' four regulation losses this season. San Jose breezed to a 6-2 triumph over the Blues on Oct. 15.
Tommy Wingels and rookie Tomas Hertl also scored, Logan Couture notched three assists for the second time in his career and Antti Niemi turned aside 21 shots.
Jaden Schwartz recorded a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to six games and captain David Backes netted his sixth tally in 10 contests for the Blues, who saw their season-high five-game winning streak come to an end.
Defenseman Ian Cole also scored and Jarovslav Halak stopped 18 shots in relief of Brian Elliott (eight saves) to begin the second period.
Burns started the onslaught 35 seconds into the contest after one-timing Patrick Marleau's centering feed from the slot. Thornton cleaned up a rebound 2 1/2 minutes later before Burns registered his second career two-goal performance at 9:14 by shoveling in the captain's brilliant feed from along the left-wing boards.
Wingels capped the first-period explosion before Cole and Backes tallied and Schwartz converted a 2-on-1 rush 11:19 into the third to bring St. Louis within one at 4-3. Burns answered exactly one minute later by snapping a shot past Halak for a power-play goal with Joe Pavelski providing a screen.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Blues last yielded four first-period goals on April 7, 2010, when they dropped a 6-5 decision to Chicago. ... St. Louis D Roman Polak notched two assists while Pavelski did the same for San Jose. ... The Sharks, who went 2-for-7 on the power play, were 1-for-16 with the man advantage in their previous five contests.