2526_ThreeThings_SJS.11.07

Will Smith scored the winning goal at 15:39 of the third period as the San Jose Sharks beat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 at SAP Center on Friday night. Josh Morrissey scored the only goal for the Jets who lose back-to-back games for the first time this season. Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves and saw his record drop to 6-5. The Jets will continue their six-game road trip Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks.

800 GP FOR VLADDY

The Jets veteran forward Vladislav Namestnikov hit the 800 games played milestone Friday night in San Jose. Namestnikov’s six goals were the most he has scored in the first 13 games of a season, and he is already over a quarter of the way to his career high 20 goals in a season. Namestnikov had three solid scoring chances in the game to push his goal total to seven, with the best of the three coming in the first period when Neal Pionk found him wide open at the left of the San Jose goal, but Alex Nedeljkovic slid over and robbed him. Namestnikov finished the night with five shots on goal, three blocks and three hits.

TRAVEL ISSUES

The Jets had some travel issues on their flight from Los Angeles to San Jose and arrived at their hotel early Friday morning. Certainly, Scott Arniel was not using that as an excuse following the loss to the Sharks. It’s a good thing they had Connor Hellebuyck to allow them to get their legs under them especially when he was making saves like this one.

WPG@SJS: Hellebuyck with a great save against Ty Dellandrea

Per Natural Stat Trick, the Jets surrendered 13 high danger scoring chances to the Sharks at 5v5. Head coach Scott Arniel made some dramatic changes to his lines to start the third period hoping for a boost.

"We had some looks, we had some opportunities," said Scott Arniel.

"But it has to be when you’re chasing in our end of the rink, like we were, getting beat on battles, making your goaltender make as many Grade A stops as he had to make, you're not getting rewarded when you do that."

CELEBRINI LEADS THE LEAGUE

The Sharks 19-year-old superstar started the night tied for the NHL scoring lead with 20 points. Celebrini continued his hot start in the first period, after Morrissey had given Winnipeg a 1-0 lead, Celebrini went in alone on Connor Hellebuyck and beat the Jets goaltender to tie the game at one. Celebrini added an assist on Smith’s game winning goal in the third period to push his league leading totals to 23 points.