Three game road trip ends with a Sunday afternoon 2-1 overtime loss to the Sharks

The Jets held a 3-1 lead on Friday night before losing 5-4 in overtime on the road in Anaheim against the Ducks. The Jets played the way they wanted to early, and Connor Hellebuyck looked great at times, but the Ducks came back down two goals for the ninth time this season. This afternoon, the Jets played their third of three straight road games after returning from the Olympic break in San Jose against the Sharks. With now under a week before the NHL trade deadline, plenty of scouts and GMs continue to keep their eyes on possible players on the “trade block” from the Jets. The 23-26-9 Jets took on the 28-25-4 Sharks, a team that struggled lately, going just 4-5-1 in their last 10 games.

There were a few small changes to the Jets line combinations tonight, as several players remain injured while others get their chance in the lineup. Walker Duehr, a former Shark, made his Jets debut on the 3rd line with Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist. Tanner Pearson was on the 4th line with Cole Koepke and Morgan Barron. Logan Stanley remained on the top defence pairing with Dylan DeMelo while Morrissey remains out, and Haydn Fleury returned on the 3rd pairing after suffering what looked like a scary injury which kept him out of the lineup since December 19th.

Connor Hellebuyck got the start in goal, as Hellebuyck made his second start since returning from Italy at the Olympics. The Jets lineup continues to deal with several injuries, including Vladislav Namestnikov, who was added to the injury report yesterday with a lower-body injury. Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with 13-16-8 record, a 2.84 GAA and a .899 SV%. Tonight’s game started out with another early Jets 1-0 lead, before the Sharks chewed their way back to a 2-1 overtime.

1st Period

Tonight’s game started in a similar way to Friday night’s game, with the Jets jumping out to an early lead. After a face off draw in the Jets zone, Cole Koepke and Tanner Pearson sent Morgan Barron down the ice on a rush. Barron sniped home a wrist shot top corner from around the face off dot for his 8th goal of the season.

Teams traded chances after this opening goal, before Gustav Nyquist took the opening penalty for slashing. The Sharks first powerplay of the afternoon was unsuccessful, and halfway through the opening period the shots on goal were even at 7. Not long after the Sharks 1st powerplay, Jonathan Toews was called for hooking, but once again Connor Hellebuyck and the Jets penalty killers denied the Sharks from tying this game.

The Sharks continued to press for the game tying goalie before the 1st period ended, but Connor Hellebuyck (like last game) looked sharp early. Kiefer Sherwood took the Sharks 1st penalty of the game late in the 1st after interfering with Hellebuyck, but the Jets couldn’t get much going in the first half of the powerplay before the period ended. Shots on goal after 20 minutes played were 14-8 for the Sharks, as they looked like the better team after the Jets opened the scoring.

2nd Period

The 2nd period started with the Jets on a shortened powerplay, but they couldn’t capitalize on this early opportunity. Just a few minutes after this man advantage, the Jets went back on the powerplay after a tripping penalty from Shakir Mukhamadullin. This powerplay was more productive, but at the end of it the Jets still led just 1-0.

Shots on goal were tied at 16 with 7 minutes left in the 2nd, with the Jets outshooting the Sharks 8-2 in the 2nd. The rest of the 2nd period was fairly uneventful in terms of scoring chances, and after 40 minutes played Morgan Barron’s early 1st period goal was still the game winner. Shots on goal after the 2nd were 18-17 for the Sharks. Most of the other game stats were close at this point, except for the face-off dot, where the Sharks had won 60.7% of the draws (17/28).

3rd Period

The 3rd period started with the Sharks getting some scoring chances, and finally on their 22nd shot of the game they tied this game at one. Macklin Celebrini sent a nice pass down the boards to Collin Graf, who started a two on one after getting by Luke Schenn. Haydn Fleury was the last man back, and after a shot on goal from Graf, Will Smith batted the puck down out of mid-air and it went past Hellebuyck for his 18th goal of the season.

Now it was the Jets turn to get back on track in this afternoon’s game, and they responded to the goal quite well. The Sharks continued to have a slight lead in shots on goal with 10 minutes to go, but the Jets were showing a good level of compete for a Sunday afternoon road game.

The Sharks took the 3rd period’s first penalty, but the Jets were unable to take the lead despite a few chances on this powerplay. Less than a minute later, the Sharks got a chance to take the lead on a powerplay after Adam Lowry was called for interference. Again the Jets shut down the Sharks, but before you knew it, the Sharks were back on the powerplay with four minutes to go.

Both goalies made great saves on this Sharks powerplay, including one from a Morgan Barron shorthanded rush. In the final two minutes of this game, both teams kept pushing for a late game winner, but for a third straight game the Jets were headed to overtime. Shots on goal were 32-27 Sharks after 60 minutes.

Overtime

Overtime lasted less than two minutes, as the Jets and Sharks each got one shot on goal. Sam Dickinson and William Eklund set up Michael Misa who entered the Jets zone. After cutting between Haydn Fleury and Adam Lowry, Misa wristed the puck past Hellebuyck for his 4th goal of his rookie season. The Jets fell in overtime for the second straight game, but they leave this three game road trip with 4 points and a record of 1-0-2.

Up Next

The Jets will now travel home to Winnipeg tomorrow to prepare for their longest home stand of the season, with eight straight home games from March 3rd to 17th. Their regular season schedule continues at Canada Life Centre with a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night. Puck drop for this game will be just after 7:00 pm CST. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news (including the upcoming trade deadline), plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.

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