In Winnipeg, the San Jose Sharks’ Joe Pavelski scored with five seconds on the regulation clock to give the Sharks a 5-4 win.
“Extremely gutsy [win],” Pavelski said. “We’ve had a lot of guys contribute some big efforts lately, stepping up. We just have to keep winning. That’s the talk, come out and play hard, stick to our systems and do it right and keep winning.
“Tonight, back-to-back, coming into a tough building, good team, we found a gutsy win, for sure.”
Marc-Edouard Vlasic had a goal for Sharks in win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Sharks improved to 43-19-8 and held their one point advantage over the Calgary Flames for the top spot in the Pacific Division.
The Jets had evened the scored at 4-4 at 16:22 of the third on a goal from Mathieu Perreault.
“You fight so hard to come back and they just take advantage of an attempted play to win the game,” Jets forward Andrew Copp said. “It’s a tough feeling right now, for sure.”
The Flames beat the New Jersey Devils, Tuesday, 9-4.
Gustav Nyquist struck for two goals for San Jose.
“I think we’re working, and things are kind of working out and [we’re] rolling with it,” Sharks defenseman Brent Burns said. “That’s what you have to do, throw those big streaks together. It’s a pretty tight league so the difference is pretty small.”
Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Marcus Sorensen also scored for the Sharks.
“It was a gutsy effort, back to back, five [defensemen],” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “I thought there was a couple strange goals there. The first couple they threw point shots to the net and one went off us, so it was one of those nights that easily we could have said, ‘the bounces weren’t going our way’ and packed it up, but we hung in there. This group has a lot of resiliency.”
Aaron Dell made 21 saves to get the win.
Bryan Little, Copp and Kyle Connor also had strikes for the Jets.
“I like the way that we played,” Jets defenseman Ben Chiarot said. “It’s two of the top teams in the league going at it and there are going to be chances back and forth. They just capitalized on the last one of the game, and that’s the way it goes sometimes.
“We don’t like to lose in that fashion but it’s going to happen a couple of times a year where you sort of get kicked in the groin that way.”
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Jets highlights]
Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves in the loss.
“Well, I liked half our game. I liked the way we scored our even-strength goals, the power play is 1-for-2, put pucks to the net with traffic after real strong forechecks,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “And then I didn’t like at all the way we were giving up goals. Seam plays, seam plays. I mean, they aren’t there at this time of year and they sure as hell aren’t going to be there in a month. We were impressively stubborn with that play and continued to try and run it.”
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