Tyler Myers admitted he let his frustrations get the best of him.
The defenceman got a five-minute major and a game misconduct late in the third period and the San Jose Sharks took advantage in a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.
Joe Pavelski scored his 22nd goal of the season on that power play and Chris Tierney added a short-handed goal and an assist as San Jose picked up its third straight victory in its third game in four nights.
Myers was called for cross-checking and got the game misconduct when he banged forward Tommy Wingels in the head after Wingels checked him hard into the boards with seven minutes to go in the third and the Sharks up 2-1.
“It’s a penalty. I’m not going to deny that,” Myers said. “Might argue about the five (minutes), but either way it’s a penalty I shouldn’t have taken.”
Asked if it was a case of losing his temper, Myers replied: “Yup. Obviously.”
Myers added that Wingels was “taking runs all game,” but he should have let it go with a 2-1 score. He wasn’t concerned about potentially getting a call from the NHL player safety department about the hit, though.
“I think it’s a joke if I get a phone call from the league,” Myers said.
Wingels said he was forechecking hard and finishing his checks and wasn’t sure why Myers was upset in the first place.
“I don’t know why he took such exception to it,” Wingels said. “He cross-checked me and it was the right call.”
Joel Ward added an empty-netter with 54 seconds left in the game. Joe Thornton also scored for the Sharks (21-18-2).
Nikolaj Ehlers scored the lone goal for Winnipeg (19-21-3) on a power play in the first period.
Alex Stalock made 21 saves for San Jose, while Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 23 shots for the Jets, who have lost three straight.
Jets forward Blake Wheeler appeared to tie the game 2-2 after Myers’ penalty when Stalock fell coming out of his crease on a clearing attempt. But Wheeler was dinged for tripping the netminder as he went by him and around the back of the net to grab the puck.
With the lengthy 5-on-3, Pavelski took a pass from Tierney and fired a sharp-angled shot by Hellebuyck with 4:01 remaining.
“I got penalized for the goalie making a (bad) play,” Wheeler said. “He puts himself in a bad spot… I can be man enough and admit if I slew-foot him. Take a look at my left foot. It’s turning right the whole way and never moves in his direction at any point.
“It’s hard to have that one go against you.”
Wheeler didn’t mince words when asked if he thought Stalock embellished the penalty by diving.
“You don’t think he knows what’s about to happen?” Wheeler said.
Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer didn’t see it that way.
“It’s the right call. You can boo all you want, but when you watch it, it’s the right call,” DeBoer said.
Stalock noted he had his back to Wheeler.
“I was going to get the puck behind the net and whether he pushed our own guy into me or (took out my feet), I don’t know. It’s a tough call for a ref to make,” Stalock said.
Jets head coach Paul Maurice held back his frustration with carefully chosen words about Wheeler’s non-goal.
“I’ve got enough concerns and refereeing can’t be one of mine, so no comment on all the calls or any of the calls,” Maurice said. “It was a call and we didn’t kill the 5-on-3.”
Instead, Maurice voiced his concern about his own players’ lack of speed.
“Like I’ve said, the frustration level builds in a course of a game because I swear we think we’re waiting for something to get easy and it’s just never, ever getting easier,” Maurice said. “So, we’ve got to be faster. We’ve got to get quicker. We’ve got to get sharper.”
Notes: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman watched the game from Jets co-owner Mark Chipman’s box. Jets centre Mark Scheifele missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. Maurice said Monday he could be out for up to a week.
