Blades of Teal
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San Jose Sharks Doomed By Byfuglien’s Game-Winner

By Mike McCareins

Apr 7, 2016; San Jose, CA, USA; Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele (55) celebrates scoring a goal against the San Jose Sharks in the third period at SAP Center at San Jose. Winnipeg won 5-4. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 7, 2016; San Jose, CA, USA; Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele (55) celebrates scoring a goal against the San Jose Sharks in the third period at SAP Center at San Jose. Winnipeg won 5-4. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports /
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Unfortunate deflections and three separate blown leads did in the Sharks against the Jets.

The San Jose Sharks trailed for a grand total of 9.9 seconds Thursday night, yet came away with no points to show for it, as Dustin Byfuglien’s goal at the 19:51 mark of the third gave the Winnipeg Jets their first three-game winning streak of the season.

Scoring was not an issue for team teal, who got four pucks past Ondrej Pavelec, including two on the power play. The Sharks were uncharacteristically lackadaisical defensively, and a few silly mistakes directly led to Jets goals, including the game-winner.

Joe Pavelski opened up the scoring in the middle of period one on a heads up play by Joe Thornton, and the Sharks were stout defensively, as was Winnipeg, through the rest of the period.

The second frame was a different story, as the teams combined for five goals and 19 shots. Mark Scheifele earned the equalizer for the Jets on a power play thanks to a lucky deflection right off of Roman Polak’s skate into the net.

However, Thornton would regain the lead just a short time later for San Jose and net his 19th of the season off a great look from Patrick Marleau. Paul Martin then snapped his 32 game goal-less streak, slapping a missile to expand the Sharks’ lead to two goals.

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But Winnipeg would score twice in the final 121 seconds to even things up again off the sticks of Andrew Copp and Blake Wheeler.

Period three began with an early Scheifele would-be-goal reversed, as officials ruled it off for a kicking motion. Not long after, Marleau would score his 25th goal of the season and fifth in eight games, putting the Sharks back on top, 4-3.

Somewhat poor goaltending by Martin Jones led to a Scheifele rebound-goal, his 29th of the season, tying things up again at four at the 12:02 mark. From there on out, it seemed as if the teams were set for overtime, that is until Brent Burns‘ decision to put out his stick in an effort to deflect Byfuglien’s slapshot with seconds remaining.

The shot, destined to go a bit wide of the net, would deflect off Burns’ stick mid-flight and redirect right into the back of the net, giving the Jets the 5-4 victory.

San Jose may have been the better team for the majority of the night, but two fortunate bounces for Winnipeg led to a Jets victory. That isn’t to say the Sharks played great, as they didn’t look themselves defensively and Jones delivered one of his worst performances of the season, stopping just 21 of 26 shots. But you also cannot take anything away from the Jets who played up to their competition, well enough to win.

Next: Sharks Should Welcome Matchup Against Kings

The result was not what the Sharks hoped for and they need to tighten things up defensively as soon as possible, but the team must about forget this one, move forward and earn two points against Arizona on Saturday in their season finale. This loss will be in the rearview mirror if they can cap off their successful season with a victory.

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