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Rangers shut out Jets 3-0

By: Tim Campbell

Posted: 01/24/2012 9:38 AM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 01/24/2012 10:29 PM | Updates

The Jets' Blake Wheeler (26) and the Rangers' Michael Del Zotto (4) vie for control of the puck during the first period of the game in New York on Tuesday. (FRANK FRANKLIN II / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

NEW YORK -- Somewhere in their travels to the four corners of the globe during the NHL’s all-star break, maybe the Winnipeg Jets will find a duty-free goals store or possibly a website that deals in softer hands or foolproof offensive finish.

Those items were conspicuous by their absence this week when the Jets made a brief, two-game pit stop in the east. One goal for two nights added up to a pair of losses, the latest a 3-0 blanking from the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.

It was Winnipeg’s third loss in a row, and third in three tries this season against the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers. It duplicated the result here on Nov. 6.

It was made all the worse by being the eighth straight time since the start of the season the Jets have failed on the second night of back-to-back games.

"We battled, we were physical, and we tried to generate things," Jets coach Claude Noel said. "Obviously we weren’t able to execute any goals and that certainly creates a problem."

This week’s setbacks leading to a five-day break were the latest in a trend of low offensive and poor road results that have basically undone much of the good work the team did at home in December.

The Jets, after a lousy start, reached the .500 mark on Dec. 3 and surged to five games over that mark by Dec. 31.

Now, at 22-22-6, they are teetering. Certainly, they are just five points out of the Southeast Division lead shared by Washington and Florida, and five away from a playoff spot, but they are also just five points from the 15th and bottom rung in the Eastern Conference.

Tuesday’s game was one of the heaviest of the season, physical both ways with crunching contact and very few instances of letting up on an opponent.

So the Jets’ compete level was certainly not lacking against the best team in the East, but that was worth nothing to frustrated right-winger Blake Wheeler, who has cooled off like many of his teammates, having only one assist in his last six games.

"This is a results business and trying doesn’t mean anything," Wheeler said. "We can talk about trying all we want but it doesn’t do anything. At a certain point in time, we’ve got to learn how to translate trying into winning.

"It just seems like when you go through stretches like this, it doesn’t matter what you do. You just can’t put it in the net. That’s just the way hockey goes sometimes. Most of the time, you might get one or two guys having that problem, but right now, we’ve got a good majority having that problem."

Added Jets winger Tanner Glass, among the many who were frustrated by Henrik Lundqvist’s shutout goaltending on Tuesday: "We’re grinding and grinding and they’re not easy chances to come by and they’re manufactured out of hits and forechecks. It does become extremely frustrating when they don’t go in."

On Tuesday, the Jets tried to bring down the conference leaders without injured impact players Dustin Byfuglien on defence and Evander Kane, Alex Burmistrov and Tim Stapleton at forward.

Byfuglien and Kane, in particular, have performed at a high level this season and their absences are not minor.

"We don’t know those things," Noel said, when asked what the injury update might be when the schedule resumes next week. "It’s hard for me to say what’s going to happen. Are these guys going to be back right away? It’s hard to say. Byfuglien hasn’t skated with us yet and obviously, in the next five days, he’s not going to get an opportunity. We’ll see where they’re at.

"Don’t lose hope. We will have hope. There’s no doubt about that. We’ll be back on track here with our injuries and we’ll get things going. We’ll try to mend ourselves and go from there."

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Game preview

NEW YORK — There will be nothing easy for the Winnipeg Jets tonight when they confront one of their biggest shortcomings of the season.

Against the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers (6 p.m. CT, TSN Jets, TSN 1290), the Jets will be looking for their first win of the season when playing on the second night of back-to-back games.

Winnipeg is 0-7 so far, with six of the failures having come on the road.

And it includes a 3-0 defeat here at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 6.

The lost second days are the entire difference to .500 in the Jets’ poor road record, 7-13-4.

One thing you might be able to say for the Jets is that they’re overdue.

It’s certainly true for forward Antti Miettinen, who has now played 16 games since being claimed off the waiver wire in December and has yet to score.

Monday in Raleigh, N.C., Miettinen had likely the best chance so far to snap his drought but stumbled and couldn’t get his stick on the puck at the edge of the crease with an open net staring at him in the second period.

It’s a goal the Jets could have used in a 2-1 setback.

“I went to the net after that faceoff and I lost the puck there for a second,” said the Finnish forward, who has just three assists in 16 games this season. “I was behind the goalie and I think I fell on the goalie’s pads or the D’s stick there. I just couldn’t reach it.”

Miettinen rolled his eyes with the obvious question about his lack of production.

“It’s kind of going over the top now but you’ve just got to battle through it, try the best you can every day to turn it around,” he said. “I’m too inconsistent and confidence and frustration are too much of a factor (for me) right now. I’ve just got to forget about it and focus on one shift at a time, go easy because the frustration’s kind of taking over now.”

He said there will be nothing easy for all of the Jets tonight.

“That’s a tough building, a good team there, so we’ll have to be prepared to go right away when the puck drops,” he said.

One bit of good news the Jets hope will continue is the return to form of winger Kyle Wellwood.

His Monday goal, the only shot to beat Cam Ward in Raleigh, extended his points streak to five games, with one goal and six assists.

After tonight’s game, the Jets are off for a week over the NHL all-star week. Their schedule resumes next Tuesday in Philadelphia.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

History

Updated on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 5:44 PM CST: Updates game preview.

6:19 PM: Updates with first goal

6:55 PM: Updates with first period over

7:24 PM: Updates with Rangers' second goal

7:44 PM: Updates with second period over

8:02 PM: Adds photo

8:32 PM: Updates with game over

10:29 PM: Final game story

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