Ward stars in Sharks win; goalie’s bid to score rejected.
San Jose recovers from Saturday’s loss to Blues with solid win against Jets
SAN JOSE — Sharks forward Joel Ward looked up and thought he had some time as he went to retrieve the puck along the boards near the Winnipeg Jets bench.
Instead, Ward was leveled by Jets defenseman Mark Stuart.
“Turned around,” Ward said, “and just saw a big white jersey in front of me.”
Ward, though, had pushed the puck ahead to Chris Tierney, who set up Timo Meier for a breakaway. Meier made no mistake as his goal was the start of a dominant second period by the Sharks in their 5-2 win over the Jets on Monday.
Tierney, Ward and Meier
combined for three goals and three assists, Martin Jones made 26 saves and Brent Burns scored his team-high 18th goal of the season as the Sharks moved back to within three points of Anaheim for first place in the Pacific Division.
Ward looked alert after the hit from Stuart but had to be taken into the Sharks dressing room to be examined. Ward returned to the ice midway through the second period and finished the game a plus-3. He was also 9-0 in the faceoff circle.
“That’s the commitment we talk about,” coach Pete DeBoer said of Ward’s play. “Taking that hit, making that play scores the goal. We need that. Joel’s a guy that brings that to the rink almost every night.”
“It was a hockey play. It was a good hit,” Ward said. “I tried to get the puck out obviously, and next thing I knew I was on my back and heard the horn go off. I wasn’t too sure what happened after that.”
Ward opened the scoring 11:54 into the first period with the Sharks killing a penalty to David Schlemko.
Ward won a faceoff to the right of Jones and a clearing attempt by Justin Braun got past Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien at the Sharks’ blue line and into the neutral zone. Ward picked it up and fired a wrist shot to the far, upper corner past a sliding Michael Hutchinson for his second goal in six games and fourth of the season.
“I tried to anticipate for it to go down, and (Byfuglien) kind of slowed it up a little bit,” Ward said. “Just kind of saw glove side and fire it there as quick as I could. Fortunate it went in.”
Burns gave the Sharks a 3-0 lead with a power-play goal 7:08 into the second period. His shot from inside the blue line went off the boards behind the Jets net, but bounced back, hit Hutchinson’s skate and skid across the goal line.
It was part of a dominant second period for the Sharks, who outshot the Jets 15-4 in the middle frame and 10-1 over the final 10 minutes.
It was also the kind of response the Sharks were looking for after their 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
“The whole team wanted to bounce back today,” Meier said. “I think we did a good job today and we obviously want to build on that.”
Jones had to be sharp early as he made four saves in the game’s first 90 seconds. He finished the first period with 11 saves, allowing the Sharks to settle in.
“Joner did a great job of keeping us in it and not giving up a goal there and putting us behind,” said Tierney, whose third period goal gave the Sharks a 4-0 lead. “After that we kind of got it going a bit and started playing our game.”
Jones also wanted to find his way onto the scoresheet.
Down by three goals, the Jets pulled Hutchinson late in the third period. That left Jones with a perfect opportunity when the puck came to him with 20 seconds to go.
Byfuglien put a shot on net that Jones caught with his glove hand. Jones put it on the ice, leaned in and put a shot into the air right beside his crease.
But the puck was caught by Mark Scheifele instead, and the Jets center dropped it on the ice and calmly scored to make it a 4-2 Sharks lead with 19 seconds to go. Joe Thornton scored an empty netter with 10 seconds left to round out the scoring.
Asked if he’s ever scored a goal as a goalie, Jones said, “No, that’s the first time I’ve tried, and probably the last, too.”
Jones has two assists in his NHL career, both coming with the Los Angeles Kings. He had one during the 2013-14 season and another the following year.
Eleven goalies, including former Sharks netminder Evgeni Nabokov, have scored in an NHL game.
Nabokov scored his on March 10, 2002 as his goal came with 48 seconds left in what became a 7-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Brodeur was credited with three goals in his career — the most for any goalie — with the last coming March 21, 2013.
“(Goaltending coach) Johan (Hedberg) said if he was going to go for it, that’s the time to do it,” DeBoer said. “That was his Marty Brodeur impression. May be the last one.”