Ehlers hat trick helps Jets jump Sharks 5-3

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This article was published 21/12/2018 (2451 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAN JOSE – It might be one of the most bizarre hat tricks in hockey history. And it proved to be the difference for a Winnipeg Jets team that appeared to be under siege yet snuck away with a victory Thursday night.

Nikolaj Ehlers broke a tie with just 3:07 to play as the Jets beat the San Jose Sharks 5-3 at SAP Centre.

“The two first ones were almost empty-netters and the third one, the puck doesn’t even go into the net,” Ehlers said of the unusual ways he scored goals 13, 14 and 15 of his season.

Winnipeg improves to 23-10-2 on the year and have now won 10 times in their past 12 games. They sit alone on top of both the Central Division and the Western Conference. San Jose falls to 19-12-5 and had their five-game winning streak snapped, despite outshooting the Jets 44-24 on the night including 34-12 in the final two periods.

“Our goalie was real good tonight. And needed to be,” said coach Paul Maurice. “I didn’t like our second period. So you can use some animal and then excrement (to describe it).”

Winnipeg wasn’t much better in the third with just three shots, but two of them resulted in goals by Ehlers. Connor Hellebuyck turned aside all 14 he faced in the final frame.

“The third, we got outshot badly, but I think in terms of quality, we would have had the best chances to score. But it was a real unusual game,” said Maurice. “The puck was bouncing all game, just trying to get a handle on it. It was a very, very scrambly hockey game. So in those you need one element. One, maybe two things. Your goaltender has to play the way he did, and then the Scheifele line, as they’ve done for us this year, has to be exceptional.”

A wild, wide-open first-period set the stage for what would be an early Christmas gift for local hockey fans who stayed up late to catch the first meeting of the season between the pair of Western Conference heavyweights.

Justin Braun took a slashing penalty 19 seconds into the game, and then Patrik Laine negated it exactly 19 seconds later with his own hack of a Sharks player. With plenty of open ice for four-on-four play, Dustin Byfuglien poke-checked Brent Burns at the Winnipeg blue-line and was off to the races on a breakaway, beating Martin Jones high to make it 1-0 just 51 seconds into the contest. It was Byfuglien’s fourth goal of the year.

The lead was short-lived. Former Jets winger Evander Kane scored 45 seconds later to tie it, and then Joe Pavelski made it 2-1 for the home team when he tipped a shot from Kevin Labanc just in front of Hellebuyck with his team on the power play.

Back came the Jets, courtesy of a gift from the hockey gods. Blake Wheeler dumped a puck in which Jones went to play behind his net – only to have it take a wicked bounce right into the slot and on to the stick of Ehlers, who fired it into an empty-net.

Mason Appleton gave the Jets a 3-2 lead just over a minute later as he re-directed Nic Petan’s nifty saucer pass past Jones. It was the first-ever NHL goal for Appleton, the reigning American Hockey League rookie of the year who has now played 11 games with the Jets this season. Byfuglien made sure to grab the puck for him as a souvenir.

“That one will probably get a special spot. I’ve got a couple (of mementos) in my bag here, but the first NHL goal is a lot different than any other goal you score, so I’ll keep that one for sure,” said Appleton.

And for Petan, it demonstrated some of the offensive skills he has. He’d been a healthy scratch for 10 straight games but stepped into the lineup Thursday when shutdown centre Adam Lowry was unable to play due to an upper-body injury.

“Honestly, me and (Petan) gave each other a little look there when he got the puck and I think he had his eyes set on me as I was trying to get that ice and work to the backdoor. He made a great play. A good sauce pass through the entire O-zone and just found me on the doorstep there,” said Appleton.

Both Erik Karlsson and Pavelski rang shots off the post in the opening period, and Hellebuyck made a number of high-quality saves to keep his team in the lead. There was even a physical bite to the game, with Brendan Lemieux and Barclay Goodrow dropping the gloves after a goal-mouth skirmish.

Players on both teams collected their breath at the intermission and settled in a bit for the second period, but San Jose certainly carried the play in outshooting Winnipeg 20-9. Their final shot of the period came with just five seconds left as Kane intercepted a Hellebuyck clearing attempt from behind his net and fired a shot on goal, which Joonas Donskoi tipped.

“It was a tie game. On the road, after two. Hadn’t played close to our best. We were in a good spot. Had a chance to gut one out. But like I said, had that put them up by a goal, maybe it’s a bit different feel. We still liked where we were at,” Wheeler said of the mindset.

It was much the same in the third period, with the Jets on their heels at times and seemingly hanging on for dear life in the waning minutes. However, Ehlers played the role of hero after Wheeler and Scheifele took advantage of a turnover and fed him for essentially another empty-net goal, with Jones deked way out of position.

“It feels good. Me, Scheif and Wheels have created some very good chemistry. We’re working as hard as we can to keep getting better as a line and helping this team win. (Thursday), we found a way as a team, we got the two points and everyone feels good. We bounced back the way we wanted to,” said Ehlers, who then capped off the big night when he was hauled down on a partial breakaway with San Jose’s net empty. Officials awarded him the goal, deeming he was likely to score had he not been impeded.

“We know we didn’t play our best game. They didn’t either. We knew what we needed to do to get back in this game and keep progressing and getting better over the course of the 60 minutes. We never gave up, we played hard the full 60 minutes and it showed at the end. We feel good,” said Ehlers.

Winnipeg is now 9-0-0 on the season when heading into the third period tied.

“I think we’re confident in ourselves. We never feel out of a game, we never feel like we have to press to score goals. Do the right things over and over again, we’re going to get chances and it’s just a matter of making it count with those chances,” said Wheeler, who finished with three assists on the night and now is tied for the NHL lead with 42.

After starting the road trip with a 4-1 loss in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the Jets will look to make it two in-a-row heading into the Christmas break when they face-off against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg