San Jose Sharks forward Will Smith might have had the best game of his brief NHL career on Monday.

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Playing in front of roughly 100 friends and family members, Smith, a Massachusetts native, made two nifty plays with his stick to help set up his own goal and a later one by Fabian Zetterlund in the second period of the Sharks’ game against the Boston Bruins on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

But with a one-goal lead, the Sharks reverted to some bad habits in the third period, fed into the Bruins’ offense, and allowed four answered goals in a 6-3 loss, San Jose’s eighth straight defeat at TD Garden. Overall, the Sharks own a 0-12-2 record against the Bruins since March 15, 2016.

Rookie goalie Yaroslav Askarov made 27 saves, including some spectacular stops early on, to help keep the Sharks (14-29-6) in the game. Ultimately, the Sharks were again unable to hold a third-period lead, as their record this season fell to a less-than-desirable 8-5-2 when they’re up after 40 minutes.

“I thought it was one of my better games,” said Smith, who has responded after being benched for the third period in a Jan. 11 loss to the Minnesota Wild. “But we have to close it out and get these W’s.”

The Sharks are now 1-3-0 on a five-game road trip that ends Tuesday night in Nashville.

Takeaways from Monday’s game

THAT SINKING FEELING: The Sharks’ second period was one of their best road periods of the season. Besides getting goals from Smith and Zetterlund, the Sharks also killed a penalty to Cody Ceci in a tie game and outshot the Bruins 14-10.

But anyone following the Sharks this season knows no lead is safe.

It’s an area of the Sharks’ game that has not improved to anyone’s satisfaction and, quite frankly, might not get better until next season, when some younger players are more experienced and other personnel changes are made.

The Sharks were outshot 5-2 to start the third period and had been hemmed in their zone for just under a minute before Charlie Coyle scored the game-tying goal at the 8:22 mark. Before the goal, both Luke Kunin and Jake Walman went to check Bruins forward Matthew Poitras in the corner to the right of the Sharks net. That left Coyle open, and he beat Askarov after taking the pass from Poitras.

The Sharks had a chance to retake the lead but failed to convert on a power play. Walman didn’t get all of it on a shot attempt from near the crease with an open net in front of him, and Korpisalo saved Collin Graf’s follow-up try.

Just 69 seconds after the penalty to Brad Marchand expired, Coyle scored his second of the game. Poitras was allowed to drive the middle of the ice inside the Sharks zone before passing to Coyle, whose pass from behind the goal line went off Askarov’s stick or leg and into the net.

The Sharks have now been outscored 32-15 in the third period in their last 22 games.

“You’re trying to defend; you’re trying to find a time to swarm and stop the puck up and get it going the other way,” Sharks forward Ty Dellandrea said of repeatedly being hemmed in their zone in the late going. “It’s disappointing. That’s the changing of momentum and the start of what happens. It’s tough.”

The Sharks have been tied or leading in the third period 26 times this season and have won just 13 of those games.

“Just a young team that got scrambly,” Warsofsky said. “They put us on our heels, and we couldn’t relieve the pressure by making some plays.”

“We go back to flipping pucks to the middle of the ice, and they just feed off that stuff. They have talented players over there that will come down and try to create offense, like they did tonight, through the middle of the ice. And if you put pucks to the middle of the ice softly, that’s what’s going to happen. That’s what we just learned.”

ASKAROV DID HIS JOB: Monday’s game indicated, again, that the Sharks have a special goalie in Askarov, who made 10 saves in the first period, including impressive stops on Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha. Askarov did the splits to stone Geekie from in close and dove to save Zacha’s attempt on another Bruins odd-man rush.

In all, the Sharks, per Natural Stat Trick, allowed an unacceptable eight high-danger chances in the first period. Askarov stopped seven of them, except Vinni Lettieri’s tip of a Jordan Oesterle shot from the point.

Even more impressive was that Askarov did it while still feeling the remnants of the flu he had contracted late last week.

OFFENSIVE JOLT: The Sharks have been struggling with the offense for almost two months. Before Monday, they had managed just three goals or more seven times in 21 games since the start of December.

Still, for the Sharks, it was positive to see Barclay Goodrow score for a second straight game Monday off a workmanlike play from Nico Sturm, for Zetterlund to score his second goal in 15 games, and have Mikael Granlund figure prominently in two Sharks goals.

NOTABLE: Sharks leading goal-scorer Tyler Toffoli missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury he sustained on Saturday morning at UBS Arena in New York. Toffoli, who has 17 goals in 47 games, remains day-to-day. His availability for Tuesday’s game was not immediately unknown. Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic was held out Monday due to illness. Timothy Liljegren was reinserted after he missed Saturday’s game with the flu. … Forward Nikolai Kovalenko was activated off of injured reserve before Monday’s game but did not play. Kovalenko had missed the previous five games with an upper-body injury.