MONTREAL — Was this a “big growth” game for the San Jose Sharks?

That’s how head coach Ryan Warsofsky saw it.

Up 3-2 going into the third period, in a raucous Bell Centre that Macklin Celebrini called “probably the hockey mecca of the world”, the young Sharks played mature hockey to close out the high-flying Canadiens.

They actually outshot the Habs, 8-7, in the final frame.

They didn’t chase bad offense: Will Smith, for example, about 40 seconds into the final frame, dumped it in instead of going on an offensive foray in a well-defended zone.

“We kept short shifts, which it goes a long way,” Vincent Desharnais said. “We stay fresh.”

Puck management was not perfect, but decent.

“I don’t think we messed around with the puck too much,” Mario Ferraro said. “It was pretty straightforward, hard off the glass, if we had to.”

They were patient with the puck.

Early in third, Kiefer Sherwood was standing with the puck on his own blueline, and instead of playing fast and going for the risky stretch pass up the ice, waited a beat, and surprised the Habs with an east-west pass to weakside trailer Shakir Mukhamadullin. Mukhamadullin carried the puck blueline to blueline, zero opposition, and fired a shot on Jakub Dobes that forced an OZ faceoff.

That’s winning hockey, winning territory.

Warsofsky added: “We did some things that we’ve really wanted to dial in, and we did a really good job of that. Through the rush, our defensive responsibilities coming out of the offensive zone.”

There was offense, too, led by Sherwood, who had three of San Jose’s eight shots in the third, including a couple in-tight scoring chances.

And of course, your goalie’s got to come up with some stops and have a little luck (Oliver Kapanen post).

“Ned made some amazing saves,” Celebrini said of Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 25-of-27 shots.

Desharnais acknowledged that the Sharks haven’t always held a lead with this much maturity: “In the past, we’ve been on our heels a little bit more, and I think the last few games where we have the lead, we don’t just back up.”

“For the most part,” Celebrini said. “I thought we played the right way.”

“Saturday night in Montreal,” Warsofsky said. “What better place would you rather be?”

It bodes well for the San Jose Sharks’ playoff hopes — they’ve got the last wild card spot in the West again tonight — that they could play “the right way” in the third period and squeeze the life out of a high-powered opponent in a hostile environment.

It’s promising that they’re playing some of their best hockey deep into March, the post-season in sight next month.

Ryan Warsofsky

Macklin Celebrini

Vincent Desharnais

Mario Ferraro

Mike Matheson