Regeln » Spurgeon’s availability on Wednesday

SAN JOSE http://www.officialpenguinsproshop.com/authentic-adidas-olli-maatta-jersey , Calif. (AP) — With several players dealing with the flu, the San Jose Sharks managed to find a way to pull out a win that moved them closer to Calgary in the race for first place.Tomas Hertl scored his career-high 30th goal of the season, Martin Jones made 37 saves and the Sharks extended their two-decade home dominance over the Montreal Canadiens with a 5-2 victory Thursday night.“I think we gutted out a win tonight,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think we’re dealing with a little bit of flu going through the team and a little short-handed. I thought our goalie was our best player tonight, which gave us a chance, and I thought our third period, when we had to have a big period, we got our best period of the game. We did enough to win an important game.”Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns both missed morning skate with the illness and several other players have flu symptoms, leaving the Sharks a step slow for much of the night against the Canadiens.But a couple of fortunate bounces and big saves by Jones were enough to give San Jose its 12th straight home win over Montreal since last losing on Nov. 23, 1999.“You could just tell the lungs weren’t with the guys,” said Joe Thornton, who scored the winner on a pass that deflected off a Montreal player’s stick. “Gutsy effort by a lot of guys tonight.”Marcus Sorensen and Timo Meier each scored for the third game in a row, and Gustav Nyquist added an empty-netter for his first goal since joining the Sharks. San Jose pulled within one point of Calgary in the race for first place in the Pacific Division and has a game in hand.Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Shaw scored for the Canadiens, who remained two points ahead of Columbus in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Antti Niemi made 20 saves.“This place isn’t an easy place for us to win,” Lehkonen said. “We had our chances to get ourselves back in the game after trailing by two goals, but we couldn’t.”The Sharks took a one-goal lead into the third and responded with their best period of the night Womens Patric Hornqvist Jersey , getting an insurance goal when Meier got a pass in front from Joonas Donskoi and knocked it into an open net. Nyquist’s empty-netter provided the capper.The teams had traded goals off odd deflections in the second period. Thornton’s centering pass to Sorensen hit off the stick of Montreal’s Phillip Danault and went into the net to put San Jose up 3-1 despite getting outshot 23-8 at that point.But the Canadiens answered later in the period when Paul Byron’s shot pinballed toward the net before hitting off Shaw and trickling past Jones to make it a one-goal game heading into the third.The Canadiens controlled the play in the opening period, outshooting San Jose 16-5, but were on the short end of the scoreboard thanks to a couple soft goals allowed by Niemi. Hertl scored on a wraparound early in the period, and Sorensen then beat Niemi to the short side midway through the period to make it 2-0.“We did a lot of little things right, but we had a couple of mistakes that allowed them to put the puck in the back of the net,” Shaw said. “I had a turnover causing that first goal. That was a little mistake that ended up costing us the game.”Montreal struck late in the first when Lehkonen’s centering pass got past Jones.NOTES: San Jose’s Brent Burns assisted on Sorensen’s goal, giving him 60 on the season. The only defensemen to record 60 assists in a season since the start of the 1996-97 season are Nicklas Lidstrom (2005-05, 2007-08) and Erik Karlsson (2015-16). … Karlsson (groin) and F Evander Kane (undisclosed) remained sidelined for a third straight game for the Sharks. … Montreal rookie F Jesperi Kotkaniemi was a healthy scratch for a second straight game.UP NEXT:Montreal: Visit Anaheim on Friday.San Jose: Host St. Louis on Saturday. The NHL’s return to Winnipeg has been an instant success in the seats, with regular sellouts since the Jets arrived in 2011 for a second landing in the smallest market in the league.Progress on the ice has been measurably slower, with just one appearance in the playoffs in the first six years in wintry Manitoba after a struggling franchise moved north from Atlanta, but the patience of general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has been rewarded and then some this season.Sporting the second-best record in the NHL, the Jets have carried the momentum of 11 wins in their last 12 games into their first-round series against Minnesota.They boast one of the game’s coveted prodigies in 19-year-old Patrik Laine and his 44 goals. They have a balanced roster that ranked second in the league in scoring and fifth in fewest goals against. They face the Wild on Wednesday night at home, where they’re an NHL-best 32-7-2 this season.”Enjoy it, right?” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. ”We work real hard to get to a place where there’s mounting pressure and mounting enthusiasm, and then we want to keep working to get to more and more and more. So you have to be a part of it. You have to enjoy it for sure.”Their time to take a big step forward to join the league’s elite has arrived. They even, considering their seed Phil Kessel Jersey , represent the best hope to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada for the first time since 1993.Toronto is the only other team that made the playoffs this year, and the Maple Leafs must start the first round on the road against the Boston Bruins.”You don’t know how many times you’re going to come across this opportunity,” goalie Connor Hellebuyck said, ”and especially now with the great team like we have here. I’m really excited to see what these guys bring.”With another series of ”Whiteout ” events planned for Bell MTS Place, with fans encouraged to wear white team gear to the arena and surrounding parties, the city has been buzzing all week even as winter again overstays its welcome.”I’m very excited. I can start feeling my body getting those butterflies,” Hellebuyck said.The knock against the Jets is the collective lack of postseason experience, with a four-game sweep by the Anaheim Ducks in 2015 serving as the only action in the playoffs for some of these players. Laine hadn’t even been drafted yet.That’s where the Wild have a clear advantage, with this their sixth straight appearance in the 16-team tournament.Though they were overshadowed in the Western Conference this season by the Jets, the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Nashville Predators and the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, the Wild posted the third-best record in franchise history. Center Eric Staal had 42 goals, his most in 12 years. Jason Zucker scored a career-high 33 goals. Their defensemen ranked second in the league with 200 points.”You really got to go through it to know what it’s about,” left wing Zach Parise said, adding: ”I know they’ve been short-lived the last couple years, but you hope with just being there that will help us.”Here are some other key angles to follow with the series:PALS IN PADSHellebuyck and Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk met last summer in British Columbia during training sessions and rounds of golf that forged a friendship, with Dubnyk encouraging Hellebuyck to keep his head up after the Jets signed Steve Mason to an $8.2 million contract.Sure enough Sidney Crosby Jersey , Mason stumbled early and Hellebuyck supplanted him as the primary netminder to tie for the NHL lead with 44 wins and finish eighth in goals-against average.”It’s been fun to watch but that’s enough now,” Dubnyk said. ”It’s been a great year for him, but I’ll stop cheering for him now.”SUTER OUT, SPURGEON INOne of the Wild’s greatest assets for this matchup will be absent, with a season-ending broken ankle for stalwart Ryan Suter, who tied a franchise defenseman record with 51 points in 78 games.The upside is that Jared Spurgeon, who missed the last 17 games with a torn hamstring, is on track to return. He practiced with one of the two power-play units on Tuesday, and coach Bruce Boudreau said he’d make a game-time decision about Spurgeon’s availability on Wednesday.WHEELS UPJets captain Blake Wheeler tied for the NHL lead with 68 assists this season and finished ninth with 91 points, fueling a potent first line with Kyle Connor and Mark Schiefele to take some of the scoring pressure off Laine.Wheeler played at Breck High School in the Twin Cities area and in college for Minnesota before turning pro. He has never missed more than three games in any regular season since his debut with Boston in 2008-09.CULLEN’S CUPSWild center Matt Cullen contributed a modest 11 goals and 11 assists from the fourth line, but the 41-year-old’s contribution transcends points. He’s played in 123 postseason games, winning three Stanley Cups including the past two with the Pittsburgh Penguins.”This is why we got him, his experience in positions like we’re in right now,” Boudreau said. ”So we’re hoping he’s going to be valuable.”—