The Bruins managed to break the 20-shot plateau in San Jose on Saturday, but that’s as far as their progress went.

The B’s coughed up a late game–winning goal to the Sharks and suffered 3-1 loss, their fourth loss in a row in wat should have been the most winnable game of the five-game road trip. The Sharks, meanwhile, snapped a 14-game losing streak to the B’s.

The Sharks’ Lucas Carlsson scored the go-ahead goal with 3:23 left in regulation when he backhanded home a loose puck after the Sharks spent long time in the Boston zone. Interim coach Joe Sacco called timeout to get a longer look at a possible offside by the Sharks but elected not to challenge it.

Barclay Goodrow then ended it with an empty netter with 50 seconds left.

In the overall scheme of things, losing games right now is not the worst thing in the world for the B’s as their draft standing can only improve with the defeats.

But for the psyche of the players trudging to the finish line of this disastrous season, it’s surely not great to be losing games to the worst team in the league.

The biggest event in the scoreless first period was a bout between Jakub Lauko and Barclay Goodrow that Lauko initiated just 3:00 in an obvious attempt by the Bruin to jump-start his team. Both players landed a couple of punches before it quickly came to an end when Lauko’s jersey came up over his head.

The game marked the return of Fabian Lysell, who made his presence felt early with his speed, drawing the first penalty of the game. But the B’s made bupkis out of the power play, failing to register a single shot on net.

The Sharks weren’t much better in their two power-play opportunities. Shots were 7-7 in the opening 20 minutes.

After the ho-hum first, the B’s had to contend with their ongoing problems in the second period. And on Saturday, the trend continued.

The Sharks took the lead at 2:13 of the second, thanks to a defensive miscue by the B’s.

Casey Mittelstadt turned over the puck high in the offensive zone but it appeared the B’s had enough numbers back to squelch the Shark attack. The only problem was that both defenseman Parker Wotherspoon and backchecker Cole Koepke shaded over to Macklin Celebrini on the right wing. That left William Eklund wide open to receive Celebrini’s pass on the left wing and beat Joonas Korpisalo between the pads.

The Sharks controlled much of the period but a feisty Korpisalo came up with several big saves to keep it a one-goal game.

Then the B’s flurried late in the period and Koepke redeemed himself. Sharks goalie Alexander Georgiev went behind his net to play a dump-in and, after a some indecision, he dished it to defenseman Vincent Desharnais. That split second of hesitation by Georgiev was enough to give Koepke time to get in on the forecheck and knock it free from Desharnais. It squirted to Mittelstadt in the slot and he buried it into the empty net before Georgiev could scramble back at 16:50.