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Pavelski stuns Winnipeg with
late goal
Sharks outlast the Jets 5-4 in epic
style
The Sharks didn't have time to react. After beating
the Minnesota Wild less than 24 hours earlier in overtime, San Jose was forced
to play in Winnipeg on tired road weary legs. It didn't seem like it.
Especially in the last 10 seconds of the game, when Timo Meier and Joe Pavelski
raced up ice on a 2-on-1 break. Meier carried the puck up the left wing before
feathering a pass to his captain on the opposite side. Pavelski collected
Meier's pass and lifted it past Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with 4
seconds left in regulation, knocking off the Jets 5-4 at Bell MTS Center.
Like a gut punch, the Winnipeg crowd let out a collective gasp as
their team squandered a late comeback by allowing old man Pavelski beat their
defense up ice and deposit a puck past their goaltender with no time to
respond.
It was a painful way to lose, and an incredible way to win.
The Sharks could have packed it in on several occasions, but they found a way
to outlast their hosts. Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic had himself a game.
After scoring a goal earlier in the game, Vlasic chipped the puck out of the
Sharks zone that sprung Meier for the game winner.
Vlasic opened a
lively 1st period with his 2nd goal of the season 8:05 into the game. The
Sharks defenseman sent a shot attempt in on net from the blueline that Jets
goaltender Connor Hellebuyck knocked down, but the rebound kicked out to the
slot where Vlasic was pinching. Vlasic gathered it and shot the puck through
Hellebuyck for the 1-0 lead.
Winnipeg responded 32 seconds later when
Andrew Copp deflected a Ben Chiarot shot over goaltender Aaron Dell's right
shoulder. Chiarot fired the puck from the blueline on the right side, before
Copp's waist high stick blade forced the puck to lift.
Bryan Little
made it a 2-1 Jets lead 33 seconds later when he bounced a long shot off
defenseman Justin Braun's shin pad for his 15th goal of the season. The Jets
defenseman gathered a Sharks clearing attempt at the right point, before
whipping it to the slot. Braun was trying to maintain position on Tyler Myers
when his shin pad redirected the puck past Dell.
Gustav Nyquist
finally made his presence felt toward the end of the period. Tomas Hertl
created a scoring opportunity by skating up the slot with the puck, drawing in
two Jets defenders. Hertl dropped the puck to a trailing Nyquist, who put a
backhand chance past Hellebuyck for his 18th goal of the season.
A
Brent Burns interference penalty at the end of the period carried over to the
start of the 2nd. Kyle Connor converted 45 seconds into the period on the power
play by lifting a backhand chance from just outside the left post.
Nyquist was Johnny-on-the-spot midway through the period to help the Sharks
re-tie the game at 3-3. Vlasic pumped a rebound on net from the high slot, and
Nyquist was able to get the shaft of this stick in the way of the shot,
deflecting it past Hellebuyck for his second tally of the game.
Marcus
Sorensen gave the Sharks the 4-3 lead 2 minutes into the 3rd period with his
16th tally of the season. Brent Burns fired a shot from the right point that
deflected behind the Winnipeg net. Joe Thornton chased down that puck then cut
back toward the right post and fed Sorensen out front for a one-time chance
from in tight. Hellebuyck recognized the pass a split second too late, as he
tried to move to his right to cutoff the shot.
The Sharks came within 3:38 of letting the 4-3 lead
stand, but Mathieu Perreault changed things with a late game. True to just
about every other goal scored in the game, Perreault deflected a Myes shot from
the right point. Perreault sat in the high slot, and his stick blade created a
small arch on the puck that landed a foot in front of the Dell. It hit the ice
and fluttered between Dell's pads.
The Sharks would dig deep late,
capitalizing on Pavelski's heroics late to extend the win streak to 6 games.
Game Notes:
* Radim Simek was injured midway through
the 1st period, which left the Sharks with 5 defensemen to close out the next
50 minutes.
* Blake Wheeler was injured with 8 minutes left in
regulation, but returned with a minute left in regulation. Wheeler appeared to
sustain a head injury and was woozy when he left the ice, but he apparently
passed the league's concussion protocol.
* Joe Thornton passed Stan
Makita on the NHL's all-time scoring list with 2 assists in the game. Thornton
now has 1,469 career points. Paul Coffey is next in line in 13th position with
1,531 points. Thornton also tied Jerome Iginla with 1,554 regular season games
played.
* Gustav Nyquist's two goals gave him 13 career multi-goal
games.
* Nine Sharks players recorded points in the game, and four had
multi-point games.
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
| WPG |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Vlasic 2 (Thornton, Sorensen), 8:05. 2, WPG Copp 10 (Chiarot, Perreault), 8:37.
3, WPG, Little 15 (unassisted), 9:10. 4, SJ, Nyquist 18 (Hertl, Donskoi),
16:04. |
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| 2nd period - 5, WPG,
Connor 27 (Laine, Wheeler), 0:45, (pp). 6, SJ, Nyquit 19 (Vlasic), 10:33. |
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| 3rd period - 7, SJ,
Sorensen 16 (Thornton, Labanc), 2:00. 8, WPG, Perreault 13 (Myers, Tanev),
16:22. 9, Pavelski 37 (Meier), 19:55. |
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| 1st period - Burns, SJ
(interference), 18:59. |
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| 2nd period - Little, WPG
(holding), 10:48. |
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| 3rd period - Nyquist, SJ
(hooking), 4:20; Myers, SJ (roughing), 11:44. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Dell |
25 |
21 |
| WPG - Hellebuyck |
36 |
31 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
12 |
13 |
11 |
36 |
| WPG |
10 |
11 |
4 |
25 |
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| Referees: Dwyer,
Rooney. Linesmen: Barton, Cherrey. |
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