Life on the road has been rough for the Winnipeg Jets this season, but they had a chance to celebrate another victory away from home. Drew Stafford, Joel Armia, Mathieu Perreault and Nikolaj Ehlers each scored to help the Jets defeat the San Jose Sharks 4-1 at SAP Center. Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for the Jets, who had lost six straight road games and 12 of their previous 13. The Jets were coming off a 4-2 loss at the Coyotes on Thursday. They gave up two power-play goals in the third period, and coach Paul Maruice wanted the Jets to play a more focused, disciplined game Saturday.
The Sharks had five power plays, but Winnipeg killed four of them, much to the delight of its coach. Brent Burns scored for the Sharks. Goaltender Martin Jones gave up three goals on 20 shots and was replaced by backup Alex Stalock after the second period with the Jets leading 3-1.
The Sharks are 5-11-0 at home. They had their fifth chance to win back-to-back home games but gave up the first goal and trailed the rest of the way. San Jose is 0-10-0 at home when giving up the first goal.
The Jets capitalized on a turnover by Joel Ward to take a 1-0 lead at 13:14 of the first period when Stafford scored a shorthanded goal. Blake Wheeler intercepted Ward's pass and sent a cross-ice pass to Stafford for his 12th goal of the season and first since Dec. 15, ending a six-game drought. Ward took full responsibility for putting San Jose in an early hole.
Winnipeg extended their lead to 2-0 at 2:45 of the second period when Armia scored the first goal of his NHL career, in his seventh game. Armia raced along the left boards with the puck, angled toward the crease and banked a shot off of defenseman Justin Braun's skate and past Jones. The goal was initially credited to Matt Halischuk but later awarded to Armia. Burns responded with a power-play goal at 9:23 of the second, his 16th of the season. Thornton sent a cross-ice pass and Burns beat Hellebuyck with a one-timer from above the left circle.
The Jets restored their two-goal lead at 14:55 of the second on Perreault's power-play goal. With Braun in the penalty box for delay of game, Perreault sent a wrist shot from the right circle over Jones' shoulder for his fifth goal of the season. Ehlers scored an empty-net goal with 2:43 remaining.
Sharks Bites
Peter DeBoer: "That was an egg. Top to bottom, poor effort, poor execution. Sloppy, soft. There aren't enough adjectives to describe it. They won all the races, all the battles, and they won the goaltending battle. We're in no position to show up and play like that. It's unacceptable."
Joel Ward: "I let the squad down early with that giveaway. It seemed to give them some life. I was trying to win out to the far side and I didn't see him. He made a great play, but that was a bad turnover on my part."
Joe Pavelski: "We got outbattled. We lost too many of the small battles. We weren't clean. Every team who comes here is ready to play, and we need to do a better job."
Jets Quotes
Mathieu Perreault: "It's a great feeling. We finally pulled it off. We've been playing well and getting close to getting there. Tonight was a great battle through 60 minutes and I'm very happy with that win."Paul Maurice: "We played a heck of a hockey game. Our energy level was good, our compete was real good. When things broke down our goalie made the save, but we skated real hard and played real hard. The focus was there. There are nights you're going to take some penalties, but I didn't have a problem with what we were doing out there. They were all through effort. I liked the effort from the start right through the game."
Blake Wheeler: "I saw [Ward's] eyes. I saw him look first. He had to kind of regain control of it so I had a pretty good idea he was going there. From there I just saw Stafford was coming with me. [Burns] kind of took away the shot from me. I was able to slide it over to him."
Joel Armia: "It really didn't matter at that point. I just thought it was great we finally scored as a line. (It) brought some energy to the team."
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