JETS 5, SHARKS 3 Winnipeg puts end to San Jose’s streak
Riding a season-high fivegame winning streak, the Sharks were primed for a win over a quality opponent Thursday night.
But a late turnover by struggling defenseman MarcEdouard Vlasic dashed those hopes as the Jets skated out of SAP Center with a wild 5-3 win.
Nikolaj Ehlers led Winnipeg with a hat trick and tiebreaking goal late in spite of San Jose outshooting the Jets 34-13 after the first period and 14-4 in the third.
“We played well, but we made a couple of mistakes we’d like to have back,” said Sharks forward Evander Kane, who scored a goal, added an assist and put a seasonhigh 10 shots on goal. “If we clean those up, we win the hockey game.”
Ehlers scored his 14th goal of the season at 16:53 of the third after Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic was guilty of a costly turnover to start the game-deciding sequence.
Winnipeg top-line forward Mark Scheifele picked off Vlasic’s clearing attempt and fed Blake Wheeler, who drew Sharks goalie Martin Jones out of his net before centering to Ehlers in the slot. Sharks captain Joe Pavelski tried but failed to block Ehlers’ shot.
Ehlers was credited with an automatic goal at 19:00 when he was pulled down on a breakaway with the San Jose net empty.
“It was a heavyweight game for us. We wanted to win this one,” Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “We expect to be one of the top teams and tonight we showed it in bits and pieces. But the full-time effort wasn’t there.”
After a combined five goals, six penalties and one fight in the opening 20 minutes, the Sharks waited until the final six seconds of the second period to score the only goal of a middle session for a 3-3 tie.
Kane took advantage of Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck’s overzealous clearing attempt to intercept and find Joonas Donskoi for a weakside tap-in goal at 19:54.
Winnipeg broke on top while skating 4-on-4 as defenseman Dustin Byfuglien stripped San Jose’s Brent Burns and capped a breakaway by beating Jones high on the first shot of the game 51 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Leading a 2-on-1 break, Kane tied things when he nailed the far top corner for his 11th goal at 1:36.
San Jose needed only nine seconds to convert on its second power play of the period. Pavelski gained inside position on a Winnipeg penalty killer to redirect a Kevin Labanc wrist shot from the right point past Hellebuyck at 11:27.
The Jets took just 65 seconds to retie it. Jones vacated his net to try to play a long dump-in by Ben Chiarot, but the puck took an odd carom right to the slot where Ehlers punched home his 13th goal at 12:32.