By Ivan Makarov

SAN JOSE, CA — It was a wild and and a crazy game at SAP Center on Thursday night but the Sharks found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard as they dropped the two points in an upset to the visiting Winnipeg Jets.

Dan Boyle, Brent Burns and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks, and Antti Niemi made 27 saves, but none of that was enough this time around as Winnipeg score one more than the Sharks and walked away with victory.

The game got off to a quick start, with Dan Boyle scoring his 9th goal of the season only 1:57 into the game. Sharks defenseman put the puck in the next on a deflection from Marty Havlat’s shot, as Boyle joined the attack and was standing right next to Winnipeg’s goaltender Al Montoya. Winnipeg tied the game 36 seconds later as Andrew Ladd scored on a counter attack and 2-on-2 opportunity. Brent Burns scored towards the end of that period on a power play putting a backhand shot in the net as he got a great pass from Joe Pavelski to put Sharks head 2-1.

The first period was very characteristic of the rest of the game. Both teams were playing open hockey, the defense wasn’t stellar, the puck was bouncing (Logan Couture complained about the ice conditions after the game), and both teams had plenty of chances in front of their opponents’ net.

Jets scored the next two and got ahead on goals by Blake Wheeler and Dustin Byfuglien, but their lead didn’t last.

Logan Couture scored one of the more painful goals of his career when he tied the game at 3-3 at 11:23 of the second period when Sharks scored another power play goal (their second) as he tipped the puck on a shot from James Sheppard who continues to play some of the best hockey of his career lately. Couture tipped the puck and was bent over crouching on the ice right after puck went in. But hands went up and he still celebrated his 20th goal. He mentioned after the game that the puck hit him in the thumb on its way into the goal.

That tying goal setup a great third period for both teams still having a chance to win the game with a good strong finish.

Dustin Byfuglien went on to score his second goal of the night when Sharks were in penalty trouble late in the third period. After nearly killing off Brad Stuart’s holding penalty, Sharks sent another player into the penalty box when Logan Couture sent the puck over the glass while clearing it. That penalty was costly as Jets capitalized on their man advantage to take 4-3 lead with three minutes left in the game.

Sharks pulled Antti Niemi for another man, but were unable to come back in this one.

“Obviously, we were not good enough,” said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan after the game. “I liked the power play, and did not like the penalty kill. The mistake at the end is something we work on all the time and was very preventable, which is disappointing.”

Sharks are now headed to Denver for one game road trip where they’ll play Avalanche on Saturday before returning back to San Jose to face Oilers on Tuesday.