Jets Lose 2-1 to AHL Sharks On Overtime Power-Play Goal

The American Hockey League's San Jose Barracuda had its best night in the NHL. Ever. Playing with five members of the Barracuda due to a COVID outburst within the team, the NHL's San Jose Sharks defeated the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 in overtime in front of a sparse, announced crowd of 11,845 in San Jose. Timo Meier scored the winning goal for San Jose on the power play at 1:07 of OT, after an incredibly dreadful interference call against Nikolaj Ehlers, right after Ehlers had been hauled down by Brent Burns. The Jets deserved a better fate in the final game of their three-game California road trip, but one supposes if you can't beat a team in regulation time with its head coach and seven of its regular players in COVID protocol, you probably didn't deserve to win in overtime. Head man Bob Boughner didn't coach the Sharks on Saturday night after being placed in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol. Instead, it was assistant John MacLean behind the bench. Also place into protocol yesterday were Sharks forwards Andrew Cogiano, Jonathan Dahlen and Matt Nieto and defensemen Erik Karlsson, Jake Middleton, Radio Simek and Marc-Edouard Classic. Meanwhile, Sharks captain Logan Couture was out of the lineup due to a non-COVID illness. In order to fill out the lineup, the Sharks called up forwards Nick Merkley, Jaycob Megna and John Leonard and defensemen Nicolas Meloche and Ryan Merkley from the Barracuda. Despite having five AHL players in the lineup, the Sharks played an almost perfect game against the Jets. They completely bottled up the middle of the ice and blocked 16 shots (it was probably a lot more than the official count). The Jets seemed to play casually for the first two periods and didn't really show any urgency until the final 10 minutes of regulation time. As well, James Reimer from Morweena, Man., had one of his finest games after 11 full seasons in the NHL. He made 34 saves and didn't allow a goal until Kyle Connor banged home a rebound at the 16:48 mark of the third period. "It just wasn't good enough in the first couple of periods," said Jets defensemen Neal Pionk. "Third period we found a way to score and salvage a point but that can't continue for the rest of the year. "It's still an NHL team over there regardless of who they call up or they have in the lineup," said . "They're quality players no matter who they put out there. Maybe they were playing with an energized boost, but we have to match their energy. We have to overcome that energy if we want to come away with two points." There was no scoring in the first period even though San Jose outshot the Jets 14-13. Both goaltenders were superb and San Jose's Brent Burns-led defense didn't give Winnipeg very many decent scoring opportunities. San Jose opened the scoring at the 54-second mark of the second period when Tomas Hertl picked up a rebound and knocked it past Jets net minder Connor Hellebuyck. The Jets finally tied the game late in the third when Pierre-Luc Dubois (who has at least a point in each of his last seven games) carried the puck across the San Jose line, made a great pass to Ehlers who fired a shot at Reimer. Reimer made the save, but Connor converted the rebound and the game was headed to overtime. The Sharks picked up the man advantage 30 seconds into overtime and scored the winner, four-on-three, just 37 seconds later. San Jose went one-for-three on the power play while the Jets didn't get the man advantage all night, despite an evening of hooking, holding and interference. Winnipeg won 62 per cent of the face-offs and outhit San Jose, 20-15. The Sharks outshot Winnipeg 36-35 and had 11 of those shots on the power play. The Jets did get some good news. Captain Blake Wheeler returned to the line-up after missing more than a week on the COVID-19 protocol list. Mark Scheifele remains on the COVID list and might not play again until at least next weekend. The three stars were Reimer, Hellebuyck and Meier. The line of Connors-Dubois-Ehlers was clearly the best line on the ice. The trio had a goal and two assists and 11 shots on goal. Connor had six of them. The Jets are now 4-4-2 on the season, but 4-0-2 in their last six games. They went 2-0-1 on the three-game California road trip. All three games were decided by one goal. The Jets returned home after the game and will open a seven-game homestand on Tuesday at Canada Life Centre against the Dallas Stars.