WINNIPEG, MB. – Usually, when a team gives up a 3-0 lead, it loses. Seems that’s not always the way for this season’s version of the Winnipeg Jets.
On Tuesday night in San Jose, the Jets took an early 3-0 lead and watched as the Sharks came back to tie it 3-3. The Jets then scored with eight minutes left in regulation only to have San Jose tied it with five minutes left.
But a goal by Bryan Little in overtime settled the argument as the Jets beat the Sharks 5-4 in a wild one on the west coast.
It was another huge win for the Jets and put a halt to a streak in which the Jets had scored only four goals in a stretch of four games. Head coach Paul Maurice said he was worried about his team’s offensive drought and he was certainly proven correct on Tuesday.
The Jets are in first place in the Central Division, two points ahead of second-place Nashville, a team with three games in hand. The Jets are four points ahead of the third-place St. Louis Blues, but the Jets have a game in hand on St. Louis.
Winnipeg is now 7-2-1 in its last 10 games and 8-2-1 since star forward Mark Scheifele went down with a shoulder injury. So many Jets players have stepped up at different times during Scheifele’s rehab – Little, Blake Wheeler, Connor Hellebuyck, Mathieu Perreault, Joel Armia, Patrik Laine, Nikolaj Ehlers, Tyler Myers, Jacob Trouba, Brandon Tanev etc. – that it’s hard to imagine how good this team could been with its 2016-17 leading scorer.
On Tuesday night, the Jets came out flying. Perreault scored his 15th of the year at the 18 second mark of the first period and then Armia scored his eighth at 4:32 and Little scored his ninth of the year at 11:56. It was 3-0 and this looked like a walk in the park.
But San Jose’s Joe Pavelski beat Hellebuyck at 19:14 and the momentum changed. The Sharks scored two unanswered in the second to tie the game and had taken control of the play. But Armia tallied his second of the night and ninth of the year at 11:38 of the third to give the Jets a 4-3 lead.
However, Timo Meier scored his 11th of the season for the Sharks at 15:20 and this game was headed for overtime.
Overtime didn’t last long. Little scored his 10th of the season from Dustin Byfuglien and Ehlers just 18 seconds into extra time and the Jets had their 29th win of the year.
“It definitely felt good tonight, especially after the way that game went,” Little told reporters after the game. “We got a really good start, and they clawed their way back into it. It was a good hockey game, back and forth. It’s good to get the two points.”
The Sharks outshot the Jets 33-23, but Hellebuyck was solid throughout and very, very good when he had to be.
The Jets did lose an important player to injury at 8:13 of the first period. Sharks forward Tomas Hertl slammed Jets defenseman Dmitry Kulikov from behind, sending him face-first into the boards. Kulikov did not return and Hertl was handed a five-minute major.
“He’s going to get looked at tomorrow,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said in his live post-game news conference. “He got stitched up pretty good. Said he was feeling all right after the game, but we won’t really have a better understanding of where he’s at until tomorrow.
The Jets will finish this mini-two game road trip in Anaheim on Thursday night. Game time is 9 p.m. CST on TSN 3.
Scott Taylor, Manitoba Post
Photo by James Carey Lauder