SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Joe Pavelski knows the playoffs are coming, and he is heating up just in time.

The San Jose captain continued his late-season goal surge while leading the Sharks to a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.

Pavelski scored twice to take the team lead with 28 goals, and he has seven goals in five games. Goalie Martin Jones made 22 saves as the Sharks enjoyed quite the disparity of shots on goal -- 41-23 -- which included a season-high 20 for one period in the first.

"He does it every night," Sharks defenseman Dylan DeMelo said of Pavelski. "If it's not scoring goals, he's doing something else. He works hard all the time. Maybe they weren't going in as often as he'd like early on, but he has such great talent around the net there, we knew he would break through. And he's playing huge for us right now."

In lengthening their lead in the Pacific Division to nine points over the idle Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks with a seventh win in nine games, the Sharks also snapped an 11-game winless streak against the pesky Sabres, who had won each on their past five visits to SAP Center.

"You get what you deserve in this league, and we didn't deserve to win that game or be in that game," said Buffalo goalie Robin Lehner, who made 37 saves.

Pavelski scored his second of the game at 5:28 of the third period to give the hosts a two-goal lead. A puck shot by DeMelo caromed off a Buffalo defenseman right to Pavelski, who punched home the lucky bounce from the weak side.

"Definitely I have some confidence, shooting a few pucks that are finding holes lately," Pavelski said. "I like my sticks. But definitely linemates, that's the biggest part of it."

Logan Couture added insurance with his 24th goal of the season by tipping a puck off the goal stick and over the head of Lehner at 14:57 of the third.

San Jose continued its assault on the Buffalo goal in the second period, putting another 16 shots on goal for a total of 36 through 40 minutes. And while they trailed 1-0 after the first period, the Sharks found the back of the net twice in the second.

"We didn't get impatient where you're turning pucks over," Pavelski said. "We stuck a few pucks behind them, guys were working, we drew a few penalties. It was another good period of response."

Pavelski scored the equalizer on San Jose's third power play of the game. He went to a knee in the slot to one-time a Couture feed past Lehner, who turned away the first 30 shots he faced. The goal came at 11:47.

The hosts took a 2-1 lead with 49.8 seconds left in the middle period, and as fate would have it, the goal didn't even come off the stick of a Sharks skater.

Micheal Haley applied a hard forecheck on Buffalo defenseman Cody Franson, who tossed the puck from the end boards to Jack Eichel in front. Eichel flailed at the bouncing puck and tapped it right between the legs of Lehner.

"Hockey is a game on bounces, and I feel I've been getting a lot of good ones lately," Eichel said. "It's unfortunate I got a bad one."

Haley's unassisted goal was his second of the season.

"You can't plan that, it was lucky," Haley said. "We'll take it, especially having the first one taken back. We got a few bounces today."

Eichel reached the 20-goal plateau just 70 seconds after the opening faceoff as a result of a San Jose turnover. Pavelski tossed the puck up the boards, but there was no winger present.

Defenseman and one-time Sharks player Josh Gorges punched a drive toward the net that ricocheted off a skate to Matt Moulson, who fed a wide-open Eichel for a 10-foot one-timer past a sprawled Jones.

The Sharks thought they had tied the score at 10:47 when rookie forward Marcus Sorensen swooped in to deposit a rebound past Lehner, but the Buffalo goalie was interfered with by San Jose defenseman Brent Burns moments earlier.

San Jose challenged the ruling, but the call on the ice was upheld and the hosts lost a timeout.

"When a goalie is playing like that in the first and they take one back, I'm sure he was feeling pretty good," Haley said. "We just talked about, 'Keep peppering him and one is bound to go in.' ... A timely power-play goal gave us a boost. We kept putting the puck on net, and good things happened."

NOTES: San Jose has not allowed a power-play goal in four straight games (10-for-10), and the Sharks denied Buffalo's league-leading unit on its only chance Tuesday. ... San Jose LW Melker Karlsson (lower body) missed his second straight, while D David Schlemko (lower body) was missing for the sixth in a row. Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said both are close to returning. ... Buffalo continues its four-game trip in Los Angeles on Thursday. ... San Jose next hosts St. Louis on Thursday. ... RW Hudson Fasching was Buffalo's lone healthy scratch. D Dmitry Kulikov (upper body), RW Kyle Okposo (ribs), LW William Carrier (knee) and C Johan Larsson (wrist) remained out for the Sabres. ... C Ryan Carpenter and D Tim Heed did not dress for San Jose.