A turnover in the attacking zone by young Jets winger Patrik Laine, led to a beautiful goal by San Jose's Joe Pavelski at 2:49 of overtime to give the Sharks a 3-2 victory over the Jets in front of another packed house at BellMTS Place.
It was a heartbreaking loss for the Jets who did pick up a point and are now 34-16-3 and with 71 points remain in first place in the NHL's Central Division. The Jets have 29 games remaining on the schedule as they approach the two-thirds mark in the 2018-19 campaign.
"Yes, getting my 300th career point feels pretty good," said Mathieu Perreault, who scored the Jets second goal. "But it would have felt a lot better if we'd been able to get the two points."
Indeed.
Jets captain Blake Wheeler opened the scoring at 3:08 of the opening period with a bullet wrister over the right shoulder of Sharks netminder Martin Jones. Jose Morrissey and Jacob Trouba drew the assists on Wheeler's 11th of the season.
But later in the period, while killing the Jets first penalty, Morrissey blocked a one-timer and hit the ice in tremendous pain. While he was lying on the ice, the Sharks Logan Couture flipped a shot from the point through traffic that beat Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck on the short side at 10:54 and that tried the game at one. The goal was bad enough. The fact that Morrissey didn't return was the real bad news.
The 1-1 scored held through the first 20 minutes as San Jose outshot Winnipeg 14-5.
The Jets played a smarter, crisper game in the second period. Mathieu Perreault scored the only goal of the period when a rebound wound up on his stick and he ripped past Jones at the 52 second mark. Tyler Myers and Brandon Tanev picked up the assists. The Jets scored again on the power play later in the period when Mark Scheifele whipped one home from the slot, but the goal was disallowed after Sharks coach Peter DeBoer challenged, saying the Jets were offside. They were.
"It was offside, not was the right call, it was clean," said Maurice of the offside. "It was just unfortunate. It changed the momentum in the game."
Winnipeg outshot San Jose 15-6, so both teams had 20 shots after 40 minutes.
In the third period, the Sharks came out flying and tied the game at two when Marcus Sorenson scored his 11th of the season at 2:35. The score held up for the next 17:25. but in overtime, the Laine turnover as the Jets were attacking on the power play, led to a San Jose and a beautiful goal by Pavelski who converted an outstanding pass from Brent Burns to give San Jose the win.
The Sharks outshot the Jets 38-27, outshooting Winnipeg 16-6 in the third and 2-1 in OT.
The Jets will now head out onto the road and face the Canadiens in Montreal on Thursday night and then the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.
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