Blues beat Sharks in OT, spoiling Jones’ effort
A solid performance from Martin Jones on Thursday night was spoiled by the St. Louis Blues.
Jones allowed a goal by Brayden Schenn with 40 seconds left in the third period to tie the game, and David Perron scored a power play goal at the 4:00 mark of overtime as the Sharks were handed a disappointing 3-2 loss by the Blues at Enterprise Center.
A week ago, Bob Boughner dressed down Jones in his postgame meeting with reporters, saying the goaltending the Sharks were receiving wasn’t up to the team’s standards.
Jones has been solid ever since for the Sharks, and his performance Thursday may have been his best of the season.
Jones made 19 saves through the first two periods and finished with 40 saves. Noah Gregor and John Leonard scored second period goals as the Sharks began a critical 10-game stretch.
On Feb. 11, Jones allowed six goals on 26 shots in a 6-2 Sharks loss to the Los Angeles Kings. But Jones stopped 23 of 26 shots in a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and 26 of 28 shots in a 3-2 Sharks win
over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.
Jones’ best save came with 6:34 left in the second period, as he stopped Blues forward Ivan Barbashev on a point blank try.
Roughly a minute later, Leonard scored for the second straight game.
Ryan Donato fanned on a wrist shot from in close, but the puck slid right to Leonard, who beat Binnington at the 14:31 mark to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead. Leonard scored his first career NHL goal on Monday when the Sharks beat the Anaheim Ducks.
Jones was making his fifth straight start, his longest such streak since he started six straight from Nov. 5 to Nov. 19, 2019.
Mike Hoffman gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at the 6:12 mark of the first period. With Brent Burns serving an interference penalty, Oskar Sundqvist took a pass from David Perron at the side of the Sharks net and put a shot on Jones. The rebound came right to Hoffman, who scored his sixth of the season. The Sharks came into Thursday having allowed seven power play goals in their previous four games.
Thursday’s game was the first of a 10-game gauntlet the Sharks were facing over the next two-plus weeks.
After the Sharks’ game with the Blues on Saturday, they come home to start an eight-game homestand that features three games against the Vegas Golden Knights, two against the Colorado Avalanche, two more against the Blues and one with the Minnesota Wild on Monday.