It’s hard to win hockey games when you aren’t scoring many goals.
The Winnipeg Jets are seeing this happen right now as they dropped a 2-1 decision in San Jose Friday night, coming off the heels of being shutout in Los Angeles in their previous game.
Each team had an opportunity on the power play in the opening period and in both situations, it was Winnipeg with the best chance to score.
On the Jets’ power play, a scramble in front resulted in Alex Nedeljkovic on his backside inside his own net as Nino Niederreiter got the puck at the side of the crease. But the Sharks’ netminder got up just in time to deny Niederreiter with his left skate inches from the goal line.
A few minutes later, Nikita Chibrikov took a double-minor for high sticking, though again it was the Jets with a fantastic look as Adam Lowry got free on a shorthanded breakaway after blocking a shot. He tried to beat Nedeljkovic to the blocker-side but the San Jose goalie made the save to keep the game goalless.
The Jets broke through at the 12:34 mark of the first. A scramble at the faceoff dot ended when Niederreiter used his skate to kick the puck back to the point where Josh Morrissey blasted a one-timer that eluded Nedeljkovic through traffic.
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Just 72 seconds later, the Sharks drew level thanks to their young superstar. Tyler Toffoli picked up a loose puck in the slot in his own end and spotted Macklin Celebrini flying the zone. Toffoli made a perfect pass to spring Celebrini who just narrowly beat Morrissey up the ice before putting a deke on Connor Hellebuyck and beating him to break a tie with Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid for the league lead in points.
Winnipeg wound up outshooting San Jose 12-8 in an eventful opening 20 minutes.
Neither team scored in a second period that was wide open and featured long stretches without any whistles. Between a faceoff with 10:23 left and a Nedeljkovic save with 52 seconds to go, there was only one whistle for icing as San Jose took the game over during the final minutes of the second.
Winnipeg had a great chance to take the lead just over seven minutes into the third as Gabriel Vilardi and Cole Koepke found themselves on a 2-on-1. Vilardi passed it across to Koepke who had to lunge for the puck and had an open net to shoot at but instead decided to try and pull the puck back across the crease, only to trip over Nedeljkovic. The Sharks’ goalie was assessed a minor penalty for tripping, but it was nullified less than a minute later when Vilardi received a penalty for holding the stick.
The third period also featured several new line combinations for the Jets as Scott Arniel looked for a spark but to no avail as the Sharks took the lead for good with just over four minutes left.
Celebrini lost the puck as he entered the Winnipeg zone and it found its way to the stick of Pionk, who sent a pass to nobody in particular as it went to the boards near the faceoff dot to the left of Hellebuyck. Philipp Kurashev skated onto it for San Jose and took it behind the goal before feeding Will Smith in front. He slid it across to Celebrini who was denied by Hellebuyck but the rebound bounced off Pionk and rolled toward the goal line before Smith shoved it across for the eventual winner.
Winnipeg did pour on the pressure with the net empty in the final moments but were unable to cash in with an equalizer.
Hellebuyck made 25 saves in defeat while Nedeljkovic stopped 32 shots to give the Sharks their fourth win in their last five outings.
While Winnipeg managed to outshoot the Sharks, San Jose handily out-attempted the Jets 54-37 at 5-on-5 and 69-53 in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick. Winnipeg blocked 28 shots in the loss compared to just 11 for the Sharks.
The Jets will try to snap this two-game slide when they visit Anaheim Sunday night. The puck drops just after 9 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB beginning at 7 p.m.
