Little making huge contribution

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This article was published 27/11/2014 (3947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BUFFALO — Memo to the Winnipeg Jets: whatever Bryan Little is chowing down for his pre-game meal might now be the grub of choice.

The nifty Jets centre opened the scoring for the third straight game Wednesday night in Buffalo, a tone-setter for the club’s second-consecutive win on a three-game road trip.

Little now has eight goals this season — half of them have opened the scoring in a game, a fifth was the OT winner against Colorado on Oct. 26.

“Really big,” said Little of Wednesday’s first goal against a Sabres team that had won three straight. “It gives us some momentum early and kind of sets the tone for the game. They made a good push at the end, but we were able to fight it off.

“It wasn’t the prettiest game, by any standards. But we had a couple of huge penalty kills and the power play came through again. It was ugly, but we’ll take it.

“We’ve been in a lot of these one-goal games this year and it’s a place where we’re comfortable, with a one-goal lead going into the third. It was a tight one, but that’s our kind of game. We’re not going out there making the pretty plays all night. We’re going to win some ugly ones.”

Interestingly, Little went 13 games without a goal and now has three in three.

“(The Little line) played those two games against Detroit and St. Louis where they didn’t get anything, but they played well,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice.

“Now there is some chemistry that is starting to develop. It’s a different style of game that they are being asked to play and they’ve made good adjustments.

“Confidence is everything. Bryan goes through a stretch where he’s not scoring and he’s feeling it a little bit. Now he feels good.”

PUTTING THE SPECIAL BACK IN SPECIAL TEAMS: Little’s goal came on the power play and was the Jets’ third with the man advantage in two games after an 0-for-25 stretch over seven contests. Winnipeg also got a short-handed marker from Michael Frolik that was the game-winner.

The Jets now have power-play goals in consecutive games, a first this season, and it came with them again featuring their ‘umbrella’ look.

“It looked really good,” said Little.

“We’re passing it around and we got some good looks. We tried to keep it more simple and just move the puck quicker. It’s funny. You try to do less and it looks a lot better and it performs a lot better. We’re really happy with how it looked.

“That’s something that hasn’t been there for us a lot this year but it seems that the seam across was open a lot tonight.

“That’s how we got the goal in the first. If we can keep playing like that on the power play, we can have success.”

The Jets also stopped a stretch of surrendering power-play goals.

Winnipeg had given up a man-advantage goal in five straight games, but shut down the Sabres four chances Wednesday — including the pivotal five-minute major taken by Adam Lowry for a cross-check in the back of Patrick Kaleta that also yielded Frolik’s short-handed goal.

“We rolled eight guys up front. And when you have eight guys that are comfortable killing penalties, it’s part of what is exciting for our team,” said Maurice.

“Confidence is everything. You’re starting to see a little confidence on our power play, we’re moving it around better.

“Our penalty kill has been good, even in this stretch of games where we’ve given up a few goals it’s been consistent all year. Lots of confidence.”

SICK BAY UPDATE: The Jets played the game without centre Mathieu Perreault (upper-body) but the club hopes both he and defenceman Toby Enstrom could be good to go Friday in Boston.

EARLY EXIT: Lowry could face supplemental discipline for his hit on Kaleta.

Said Sabres coach Ted Nolan: “When you’ve got somebody cross-checking somebody from behind that close to the boards… hopefully somebody else (the league) will take care of that for us.”

And Maurice: “I think (the five-minute major and game misconduct) is the right call. I think it’s a five… I don’t think it’s anything more than that, to be honest with you. I think the referee got it right on the ice.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait