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Patrick Marleau has winner as Sharks top Jets 4-3; San Jose wins six straight

Marleau has winner as Sharks top Jets 4-3

WINNIPEG — Peter DeBoer got another opportunity to heap praise on veteran forward Patrick Marleau.

Marleau scored the game-winner with 4:33 left in the third period as the San Sharks extended their win streak to six games with a 4-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.

Marleau, 37, was the hero again a night after he scored four goals, including the winner, in the third period of San Jose's 5-2 victory over Colorado on Monday. He now has 498 NHL career goals.

"He's a special player," coach DeBoer said of the 19-year veteran. "He's had an unbelievable career and he looks like he's still got a lot of gas in the tank."

Marleau's 17th goal of the season came off a pass across the front of the net from Ryan Carpenter, which Marleau shot into an open net by Ondrej Pavelec at 15:27.

"It's been going good," Marleau said. "I think the main thing was we're getting the wins. That was a great play by Carpenter to get me the puck."

After a review, a no-goal call on Winnipeg with 17 seconds remaining was upheld because the referee intended to blow his whistle to call the play dead.

"I thought it was under me," San Jose goalie Aaron Dell said of the puck. "I couldn't really tell. Either way I got pushed all the way into the net so I'm thinking that's the right call there."

Playing in his ninth game this season, Dell finished with 31 saves.

Brent Burns, Logan Couture and Melker Karlsson, on a penalty shot, also scored for the Sharks (31-16-2).

Bryan Little scored twice and Andrew Copp had Winnipeg's other goal. Defencemen Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey each picked up a pair of assists.

Winnipeg rookie star Patrik Laine, returning to action after missing eight games with a concussion, assisted on Little's second goal for his 38th point of the season.

"First shift was just thinking about the game too much," Laine said. "I just have to leave the thinking and just go out there and play."

Pavelec got his fourth straight start in net and stopped 22 shots for the Jets (22-25-4).

The teams were tied 2-2 heading into the third period.

Little made it 3-2 at 4:00 with his second goal of the game off a fortunate bounce. His shot off a rebound and the puck hit the crossbar, bounced off Dell's back and trickled across the line.

With the Sharks shorthanded because of a tripping penalty, Karlsson was checked from behind by Jets defenceman Jacob Trouba and got a penalty shot. He made it count, sending the puck over Pavelec's glove to tie it 3-3 at 9:37.

Little called the penalty shot "a turning point in the third" but he wasn't blaming Trouba.

"It was a great defensive play and a play that happens often," Little said. "I mean, what can you do. He called it a penalty shot and you can't change it now. I had no problem with the play. It was a great defensive play."

The teams were also tied 1-1 after the first period on Burns' 21st goal of the season 53 seconds into a two-man advantage at 3:59 of the first.

Morrissey set up Winnipeg's tying goal with a long lead pass to Little, who got away from Sharks defenceman Joel Ward and put a low shot by Dell at 8:02.

San Jose regained the lead 27 seconds into the second after Couture redirected a pass from Mikkel Boedker for his 16th of the season.

Couture has six points in his last four games, including a pair of goals.

After the Jets had a goal waved off, Copp scored with a high slap shot at 1:59 left to even the score 2-2.

The loss concluded Winnipeg's four-game homestand (2-2-0). The team plays in Chicago Thursday and then has its all-star break. San Jose heads to Edmonton for a Thursday game.

Judy Owen, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected version of an earlier story. Patrik Laine did not miss seven games with a concussion, he missed eight.