WINNIPEG – Coming off a huge win Saturday night and getting ready to head out on the road for five of the next six games, the Jets were looking to stay ahead against Western foes the San Jose Sharks.
With the Sharks sitting just two points back in the standings they were hungry to take a bite out of the Jets Monday night. It was pretty much a one-sided affair but the Jets did manage to keep it close before losing a heartbreaker, getting scored on with just five seconds left in the game going down 3-2.
“We couldn’t be happier to get the win and fix what was broken,” San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “We didn’t play very well against St. Louis, and [Winnipeg] plays a similar game. Heavy, hard, a lot of pinching.”
“I thought we got [a better commitment to the team game],” McLellan said. “We needed to get back on track tonight. We needed to become the competitive group that we can be, and for the most part we got that.
“I thought we did a much better job tonight, so to get the reward at the end of the night was icing on the cake, and now we have to keep that recipe going.”
Rookie goalie Michael Hutchinson was getting back-to-back starts again as head coach Paul Maurice has said he is going with the hot hand. Hutchinson faced 37 shots and made 34 saves but would probably like to have a couple back! He falls to 10-4-2 on the season.
Antti Niemi wasn’t as busy as he only faced 19 Winnipeg shots and stopped 17 of them. He improved to 16-9-4 on the season.
Winnipeg seemed to be flat all game as the passes were not very smooth and they couldn’t generate much if any, on their forecheck, although it was a pretty one sided game for penalties as the Sharks were on the power play seven times going 1-7. The Jets went 2-3 and probably could have used a few more special teams’ chances on the game.
Winnipeg got both goals on the power play; Andrew Ladd ripped home his 15th of the season, Jay Harrison got his 2nd of the year.
“It’s going to sting tonight, but we don’t have time to sit here and sulk,” Ladd said. “We’ll chalk it up as a learning experience and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
San Jose got goals from Brent Burns his 11th an absolute rocket from the point on the power play, Melker Karlsson tipped in his 3rd, Marc-Edouard Vlasic got his 5th which ended up the winner.
“I was in the right spot at the right time,” Vlasic said. “We played hard against a very fast and physical team. It [was] nice to finish it off before overtime.”
The Jets were led by big Dustin Byfuglien as he logged almost 30 minutes of ice time, killing penalties, running the power plays and even throwing some nasty checks. Adam Pardy also had a very strong game playing just under 21 minutes. Although they were very flat and sluggish the team will need to refocus as they have a tough trip coming this week and will want to get back in the win column ASAP.
The Jets fall to 20-13-7 on the season and see themselves holding down a top eight spot still with teams breathing down their necks.
“Our margin for error is thin,” Maurice said. “Our special teams has really been the difference in this stretch of games. Our power play has been great, [our] penalty kill has been outstanding. Tonight, I just didn’t think we were at the level we’ve been at pretty much all year in the first 30 [minutes of the game].”
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