SAN JOSE – The good vibes that surrounded the Sharks through the first week of the season feel like a distant memory as a four-game winning streak has now given way to a three-game losing skid.

The Sharks allowed a first-period goal to Mike Hoffman and second-period goals to Alexander Romanov and Brendan Gallagher in a 4-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, who earned their first victory at SAP Center in over 20 years.

The Sharks peppered Canadiens goalie Jake Allen with 25 shots through two periods, with 13 coming on the power play. But San Jose went 0-for-4 with the man advantage, continuing a cold streak that started midway through its just-completed five-game road trip.

The Sharks are now 0-for-12 on the power play over the last four games.

Allen finished with 44 saves as the Canadiens snapped their 12-game losing streak in San Jose, a skid that dated back to Nov. 23, 1999.

The Sharks host the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday in the second game of a five-game homestand. The Sharks announced that just 11,463 tickets were sold for Thursday's game.

San Jose started the season with wins over Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, allowing just seven goals along the way and showing that their meat-and-potatoes approach could lead to success. They had an opportunity Thursday at the start of their homestand to show that the four-game win streak wasn't a fluke.

But the Sharks had to chase the game Hoffman scored at even strength at the 12:09 mark of the first period. The Sharks also failed to capitalize on two power-play tries in the opening 20 minutes.

"When you start to win games and you see the way that you win games, you feel great about yourself," Sharks captain Logan Couture said Thursday morning. "So when you get off to a hot start like our first four, playing that style and brand of hockey that we need to play to win, it just builds confidence in that style. Guys buy in quicker."

The Sharks felt they got away from that style last Sunday in their 4-3 loss to the Boston Bruins. They also fell behind early two days later in a 3-1 loss to Nashville, although they allowed just one even-strength goal.

"If we continue to play the way that we want to play," Couture said, "we can play in any game."

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 28: San Jose Sharks' Andrew Cogliano (11) fights for the puck against Montreal Canadians' Brett Kulak (77) in the first period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

The Sharks had won 10 straight games against the Canadiens, home and away, before Thursday, with the most recent being a 5-0 victory at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Oct. 19. Adin Hill made 21 saves for his fourth career shutout and his first with the Sharks.

The Sharks felt, though, that they would get a stiff challenge from the visitors after they were spanked 5-1 by the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday to drop to 1-6-1.

"They're a team that hasn't gotten off the start they wanted, a team that we beat in their building so they're going want revenge and play a lot better than they have to start the season," Couture said. "They're a dangerous team. They've got a lot of skill up-front. We're going to have to be better than we have been the last couple of games to beat them."

Up until Thursday, San Jose had received excellent production from its top line of Couture, Timo Meier, and Jonathan Dahlen, which had scored seven of the Sharks' 13 non-special teams goals. Couture and Meier both carried six-game point streaks into Thursday.

NOTES: Forward Matt Nieto missed Thursday's game with a lower-body injury after he blocked a shot in Tuesday's game in Nashville. Nieto is considered day-to-day.