Yaroslav Askarov made 21 saves for San Jose (2-1-0), which played without captain Macklin Celebrini, who was a late scratch with a lower-body injury.
“Obviously, (Celebrini) didn’t play tonight,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We’ll evaluate tonight and tomorrow and see where he’s at.
“He’s still being evaluated.”
Heiskanen opened the scoring at 18:51 of the first period. Askarov thought he controlled Benn’s initial shot, but Hintz knocked the rebound off the end boards to Heiskanen, who finished the play by banking in a backhand off Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov and the right pad of the goaltender.
“I knew the goalie wasn’t ready there,” Heiskanen said. “I tried to hit somewhere, hit the defenseman or someone. I tried to hit the goalie, but you know, lucky bounce, and it went in.”
Kiviranta made it 2-0 at 3:17 of the second period, banking another puck from below the goal line in off Askarov’s pad. Oskar Back took the initial shot from the low slot, but it deflected off Jacob Trouba, and Kiviranta sent the puck back toward the crease and the prone goaltender.
“Pinballing around, obviously,” San Jose defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “Some weird bounces, but as defenders you try to clean up what you can in front. Just some odd bounces, that’s all.”
Benn pushed the lead to 3-0 at 6:19, jamming a shot in near the left post after Robertson sent him a touch pass between his legs from below the goal line.
“(Benn) has been the leading scorer of this league,” Gulutzan said. “You could see on that one little play with (Robertson) behind the net that they were in sync. They both knew what the little play was, and it goes in the net. That might look like a little thing, but that’s a big thing. That’s two hockey IQ players reading off each other.”