Jets at Sharks
Now that the San Jose Sharks have won a game on home ice for the first time since late November, the NHL’s least-winningest team at home can try to make it two in a row Saturday when the Winnipeg Jets pay a visit. “We’ve been playing good,” Sharks center Joe Thornton told reporters after Wednesday’s 4-2 victory over Philadelphia, San Jose’s first home triumph since Nov. 28 and only the fifth in 15 home contests this season.
A good building block is the recent play of captain Joe Pavelski, who has scored five times in the last four contests and stands sixth in the NHL with 20 goals while ranking among the top 10 in points (38). It also helps the next home game is against a Winnipeg team that has been as bad on the road as the Sharks have been at home. The Jets opened a season-long five-game road trip with a sloppy 4-2 defeat Thursday in Arizona, losing their sixth road contest in a row thanks in large part to costly penalties leading to two power-play goals surrendered in the final period. “You can’t take the penalties that we took, you just can’t,” Jets coach Paul Maurice told reporters during a terse and short postgame press conference.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, Sportsnet (Winnipeg), CSN California (San Jose)
ABOUT THE JETS (17-18-2): Special-teams struggles have contributed heavily to Winnipeg’s road woes, the Jets going 3-of-40 on the man advantage in posting an 1-11-1 road mark since Nov. 5 while allowing 12 opposing power-play goals during that span. Forward Blake Wheeler is tied for fifth in the league with 27 assists and boasts 37 points, recording assists in five of the past seven games (nine helpers in all). Rookie goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is 7-4-0, having started eight of the past nine contests.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (18-16-2): Pavelski has points in six of his past seven games (seven goals, five assists), netting his league-leading seventh game-winning tally Wednesday. Center Logan Couture recorded two assists on the power play Wednesday after missing seven games following surgery on his right thigh, but admitted to reporters after the game he did not feel great. Goaltender Martin Jones is one of the NHL’s busiest netminders, ranking tied for seventh in games played (30), tied for sixth in wins (16) and tied for fourth in losses (11).
OVERTIME
1. Jets C Adam Lowry scored both Winnipeg goals Thursday, his first two points in three games since being recalled last Sunday from Manitoba of the American Hockey League.
2. Sharks D Brent Burns leads all NHL defensemen with 15 goals and is third in points (33).
3. San Jose ranks fifth in the league in power-play production (21.8 percent), while the Jets are 26th in the league in penalty kill (77.3 percent).