NEWARK -- To a man, the San Jose Sharks recognized the situation.

Their coach, Pete DeBoer, was returning to face his former team, the New Jersey Devils, for the first time since being fired on Dec. 26, 2014.

And so, their focus was to give him a gift he would cherish: A win.

Mission accomplished.

"Anytime you come back to an old team as a player or coach there's definitely emotions involved," center Joe Pavelski said after the Sharks topped the Devils 2-1 in the shootout Friday night.

"With how well he did here, he has special memories and it was good to get the win for him."

Goaltender Martin Jones made 31 saves and, in the process, set the Sharks franchise record for consecutive scoreless minutes at 234:39. He entered the game with a 178:11 shutout streak, only having yielded one goal in his three previous starts. That goal occurred 1:49 into San Jose's season opener, a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Oct. 7.

Left winger Patrick Marleau scored in regulation for San Jose, which improved to 4-0-0. The Sharks are one of three unbeaten teams in the NHL, along with Montreal and Minnesota.

Pavelski and defenseman Brent Burns scored in the shootout.

"We knew we had to be patient against them," Pavelski said. "That was a great effort by our guys."

On the other end of the spectrum is New Jersey, which fell to 0-3-1.

"Think there were some good habits," said left winger Mike Cammalleri. "(But) we don't love moral victories."

Center Adam Henrique scored for New Jersey in regulation and the shootout. His power-play goal at 16:28 of the third period tied the game at 1-1.

New Jersey fell behind almost immediately after the puck was dropped as Marleau scored his third of the season at 2:01 of the first period.

The goal came on San Jose's second shot of the game, and was the lone blemish on an otherwise sterling performance by Devils goaltender Cory Schneider, who made 33 saves.

"Never want to give up (a goal on) the second shot of the game," said Schneider, who termed his performance as "pretty good."

Schneider's two most important stop came on a Marleau penalty shot late in the second period with the Devils trailing 1-0, and a left pad stop on Burns in overtime.

"Schneider was outstanding," DeBoer said. "We had quite a few opportunities in the second period to put the game away: Breakaways, 2-on-1s and penalty shot and point blank chances and we didn't."

Devils center Jacob Josefson appeared to tie the game with 48.5 seconds remaining in the second period, but the apparent goal was waived off as winger Stephen Gionta collided with Jones before the puck went into the net.

DeBoer compiled a 114-93-41 record with New Jersey. Under DeBoer, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2012, where they lost in six games to the Los Angeles Kings.

San Jose hired DeBoer on May 28.

"They guys wanted to win this game. This is a little bit of a trap game for us after starting out 3-0," DeBoer said. "Coming in here and we didn't fall into the trap. We came out and recognized how important the two points were against a scrappy desperate team and found a way to win."

NOTES: San Jose GM Doug Wilson announced during the morning skate C Logan Couture will miss 4-6 weeks with a fractured right fibula. ... The Sharks called up LW Nikolay Goldobin from AHL affiliate the San Jose Barracudas. ... New Jersey C Travis Zajac missed the game with a lower-body injury. ... San Jose scratched RW Joonas Donskoi and D Dylan DeMelo. ... New Jersey scratched LW Stefan Matteau and D Eric Gelinas. ... Prior to the game, the NHL and NHLPA announced in separate statements that former San Jose coach Todd McLellan was named the head coach for Team North America in the upcoming World Cup of Hockey. ... The announced attendance was 12,464.