Sharks fall to Blue Jackets 3-1

SAN JOSE - San Jose Sharks winger Kevin Labanc wouldn’t be entirely forthcoming if he said the 10-game goal drought he carried into Thursday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets wasn’t weighing on him in some fashion.

But Labanc, in his third professional season, is also mature enough to realize there’s only a positive way to react.

“It’s always going to be in the back of your head,” Labanc, 22, said Thursday morning. “But the thing is, you have to be a good enough player and a good enough pro to not worry about that, and to stick with it, stick with the process.

“You just have to keep going.”

Starting on a line with Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl, Labanc scored his first goal since Oct. 5 at the 11:50 mark of the first period, but the Blue Jackets answered with three of their own to earn a 3-1 win at SAP Center.

Anthony Duclair, Seth Jones and Nick Foligno all scored for Columbus, with Jones’ goal at the 9:15 mark of the second period giving his team a one-goal lead.

The loss snapped the Sharks’ point streak at six games (4-0-2). San Jose hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.

With his forwards failing to generate many quality scoring chances, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer, starting late in the second period, once again shuffled up his forward lines, as Couture and Hertl finished the game with Timo Meier on the other wing.

While the Sharks applied more pressure, they weren’t able to beat Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky a second time.

Labanc started the season on a line with Couture and Hertl, and had the game-winning goal in overtime for the Sharks in their 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 5.

But despite 23 shots on goal since that point, Labanc entered Thursday still looking for his second goal of the season. He has had six assists in the last 10 games, with four coming in San Jose’s 8-2 win over Philadelphia on Oct. 8.

Through 12 games last season, Labanc had three goals and four assists.

“I think it could be a lot better,” Labanc said of his season. “It’s obviously not the way I want it to be, but it’s a long season and I just have to really stick with the process, stick with all of the off-ice stuff that I’ve been doing, be optimistic and know that good things will come.”