2016-17 SEASON IN REVIEW
MAR. 26
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WINNIPEG - On a day when all the chatter leading up to game time surrounded their troubling act on special teams, the Winnipeg Jets rose to the occasion and delivered a victory on the strength of a red-hot power play. The PP went a perfect 2-for-2 while the penalty kill was equally sublime, stuffing the Canucks on their lone chance of the evening. Adam Lowry played the hero, breaking a 1-1 tie with 8:13 to play to send the Jets to a 2-1 win. The Jets worked puck down low in the Vancouver zone and Mathieu Perreault - who had Winnipeg’s earlier goal - delivered a great pass out front to Lowry, and he buried it for his 14th goal of the season. Blake Wheeler chipped in with two assists, while Michael Hutchinson was exceptional in goal, stopping 28 shots to pick up his third win in his last four tries. “We moved the puck around well,” Lowry said of the game-winner - his first of the season. “I thought we had really good possession time and we were able to work it around, and fortunately I was able to bury it. It’s nice to come out on top of the special teams battle. “It’s always nice to score goals at crucial times. This time of year, it’s still fun to win and we’re still trying to put our best foot forward every game.” Alex Edler opened the scoring for the Canucks with only 21.6 seconds left in the first period. With traffic in front, Edler floated one through the left point, beating Hutchinson low, glove side to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead. Coming off a difficult road trip two times zones away, Head Coach Paul Maurice did say he was worried about his team’s energy level off the hop, but the Jets had no trouble conjuring it up early on, recording 11 of the first 15 shots of the game. The Jets had multiple chances in the front half of the period, including one that found iron. Joel Armia stripped Edler at the far circle, spun and rifled a shot off the far post. Looking for his first-career goal, Nelson Nogier followed it up a few minutes later with a point-blank chance from the very same spot, but Miller came up with the save. From there, the Canucks took over the game and finished the period on 9-1 run on the shot clock. Hutchinson had to come up big late in the period when a Bo Horvat centering pass found former UND star Brock Boeser in front for what should have been a tap-in. Hutchinson, along with the defensive efforts of Mark Scheifele, kept the 20-year-old off the board with a big save on the goal line. The Jets evened the score with a power-play goal at 13:51 of the second. Perreault took a pass from Blake Wheeler at the right circle, waited for the screen to form in front, and fired a laser over Miller’s left shoulder to score his 11th of the year. Perreault continues to be the hottest Jet offensively with 21 points (7G, 14A) in his last 16 games. “It’s all forwards out there and we’re just passing the puck around, and whatever’s open, we try to take it and that’s what we did today,” Perreault said. “We’ve got great players here that can make plays. Sometimes bounces aren’t going your way, but right now, scoring seven games in a row, you need a little bit of luck and a few bounces here and there.” The Jets’ power play now has a goal in seven straight games, going 8-for-25 (32%) overall. - Ryan Dittrick, WinnipegJets.com
WINNIPEGJETS.COM
MAR. 28
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NEWARK, NJ - Nikolaj Ehlers, Blake Wheeler and Joel Armia scored in regulation, while Patrik Laine tallied the shootout winner as the Jets rallied from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the New Jersey Devils 4-3. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 20 of 23, and all three in the shootout. The Jets entered the third period trailing by one, but Armia tied the game with an incredible shorthanded goal - his third, and ninth of the year overall - at 2:39. The Finn carried the puck through traffic up the right side, and after outrunning the first of three defenders near the benches, he put the moves on the other two, turning each of them inside out with the silkiest of toe drags. Then, with a clear lane at the top of the circles, he fired a beautiful shot over the shoulder of Cory Schneider to even the score at three. They don’t call him ‘The Dangler’ for nothing. He now has nine goals and 17 points this year. “For him it’s all about compete,” Maurice said of the young winger. “It’s not that he doesn’t want to, it’s the same thing that all those guys are going through. They’ve never had to do it every night, and certainly not at the National League level, so they’re having to now and the coaches are barking at them. Pucks out, pucks in, those are the hard parts of our game that he needs to make improvements on, but he is making improvements on it. It’s markedly better than it was last year at the start of the year. The Jets got things rolling offensively with the opening tally only 52 seconds in, as Ehlers and Wheeler worked a pretty give-and-go off the rush. Ehlers dropped the puck back to Wheeler at the line, and the captain returned the favour with a nifty pass into the slot. Ehlers took it off the right skate and chipped a quick shot over Schneider’s glove to give the Jets a 1-0 lead. Ehlers had one of his best games in recent memory, pushing the pace offensively with that incredible speed of his, and that vision, touch and creativity around the net he’s quickly becoming known for. In all, the 21-year-old finished with five shots - second only to Laine, who was buzzing as well and had a game-high six. Moments after Mark Scheifele rifled a shot off a near post on 3-on-1 the other way, the Devils came right back and evened the score with a gritty goal in tight. Hellebuyck was unable to squeeze the initial backhand from Pavel Zacha and, with the puck sitting flat on the goal line, Beau Bennett raced in and poked it home with Dustin Byfuglien draped all over him. The Devils took a 2-1 lead at 12:07 as Josh Morrissey got tripped up in the neutral zone, allowing the speedy Taylor Hall to break in alone. Hall made a great move on the forehand, outwaiting the gaolie and slipping a shot between the pad the post for his 19th of the year. Shots on goal were even at seven apiece after one. The Jets were all over the Devils in the second, outshooting them 15-3 in the front half of the stanza, but it remained a one-goal game after the teams traded goals in the final five minutes of the period. Stefan Noesen helped the Devils open up a two-goal lead off a terrific feed from Blake Pietila at 15:27, but the Jets replied only 1:09 later to get back within one. Julian Melchiori let one fly from well out at the top of the zone, and Wheeler - who posted up between the dots - got a piece of it en route, deflecting the puck high over Schneider’s glove to score his 23rd of the campaign. Mark Scheifele drew the second assist to record his team-leading 77th point. - Ryan Dittrick, WinnipegJets.com
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WINNIPEG - Mark Scheifele’s career-high 30th goal of the season was the overtime winner as the Jets rallied from two down in the third period to take a 4-3 win over the Pacific Division-leading Anaheim Ducks. Blake Wheeler made it a one-goal game at 11:35 and Dustin Byfuglien tied things up on a jam play with only 12 seconds left to send the game to overtime. This is the second straight game the Jets have battled back from a 3-1 deficit to earn a win in extra time. As a result, they’re now above .500 for the first time in a while. “We’ve had the opportunity to see both oceans in the past week and we’re not as quick or as sharp as we’d like to be, but the fight was good,” Maurice said. “The set of circumstances we face when they came to the rink, the players handled it right.” The Jets were all over the Ducks in the third, outshooting them 17-2. And with as dominant a period as the Jets were having, it was only a matter of time before they took over. It wasn’t even close. About midway through, the tide turned for good. Nikolaj Ehlers turned on the jets and swung wide around the net before setting up Wheeler with a short pass at the far side. The captain made no mistake, slamming the one-timer past Jonathan Bernier for his 24th of the year. With the Jets pouring it on the final minute, they finally caught a break when an Ehlers pass pinballed in front and was eventually poked home by Byfuglien, who bowled his way to the blue paint, leaving Kevin Bieksa and Ryan Kesler in his wake. Scheifele then won it with 1:26 to play in a back-and-forth overtime, scorching a one-timer up under the bar for the milestone marker. Joel Armia scored the other goal for Winnipeg, while Michael Hutchinson made 25 saves. The ‘drivers’ were leaned on heavily in this one, with Scheifele playing a season-high 26:47, Wheeler 25:11 and Byfuglien - the NHL’s leader in minutes played - a game-high 29:53. Jakob Silfverberg got the Ducks on the board first with a wicked shot off the far wall before the game was even 10 minutes old, but Armia got it right back for the Jets with a beautiful shorthanded marker at 11:54. Armia, who now has 10 goals on the year, had the puck taken away by the superb defensive efforts of Ryan Getzlaf on the back check, but he stayed with it, got it back and surprised Bernier with a quick rip through the five-hole. Armia, 23, leads Winnipeg with four shorthanded goals on the year, and is only one off the league leader, Viktor Arvidsson of the Nashville Predators. Perry put the Ducks back in front with a backhander in tight. Antoine Vermette put a low shot into the pads on a partial odd-man rush, and Perry jumped on the rebound, hoisting it over the fallen Hutchinson at 18:56. The Ducks opened up a two-goal lead with a power-play goal at 7:01, as Perry picked up his second of the night. The former 50-goal scorer walked off the right wall and confronted the Winnipeg D before slipping a shot between the wickets for his 18th of the year. But that was all the visitors had in them. The Jets took over and we didn’t hear from the Ducks’ top offensive players for the rest of the night. - Ryan Dittrick, WinnipegJets.com
GAME RECAPS
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