No Trouba? No trouble

Jets pull together to down Sabres minus defenceman

By: Ed Tait Posted: 3:00 AM CST Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 Last Modified: 11:01 AM CST Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014 | Updates

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Life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Or in the Winnipeg Jets' case, you grab some tequila and salt and toss one heckuva party.

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Life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Or in the Winnipeg Jets' case, you grab some tequila and salt and toss one heckuva party.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/12/2014 (3975 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Or in the Winnipeg Jets’ case, you grab some tequila and salt and toss one heckuva party.

On a day in which the Jets were delivered their third hard kick to the nether regions with the news Jacob Trouba was joining Toby Enstrom and Zach Bogosian for a long stretch in sick bay — out until February with an upper-body injury — those left standing served up a workmanlike effort in a 5-1 spanking of the Buffalo Sabres in front of another appreciative and sold-out crowd at the MTS Centre.

The win stops a two-game winless skid for the Jets and improves their record to 16-10-6. The Sabres, who entered the night on a four-game win streak and having won 10 of their last 13, fall to 13-17-2.

CP
John Woods / the canadian press
Winnipeg�s Mark Scheifele celebrates his second goal of the game during second-period action Tuesday. — CP John Woods / the canadian press Winnipeg�s Mark Scheifele celebrates his second goal of the game during second-period action Tuesday.

“The guys played really good, they stepped up,” said Ondrej Pavelec, who was solid in picking up his 10th win. “We’ve got a lot of injuries, but every team deals with it. So, we have to deal with it. We’ve got enough players to feel confident. Big guys have injuries, but it’s about our confidence. The game we played, the way we closed the game helped a lot. You have to battle through those injuries and we did it.”

NEW NO. 1 PAIR

Without Enstrom, Bogosian and Enstrom — all averaging 23 minutes or more per game — the Jets’ new top pairing is Dustin Byfuglien with Ben Chiarot, one of whom was a forward 12 days ago, the other just recently summoned from St. John’s.

But with Paul Postma stepping up to join Mark Stuart in the second pairing and Grant Clitsome returning from IR to join Adam Pardy, the Jets were able to limit the Sabres to just 28 shots — none through the first 10 minutes of the game and only seven five-on-five chances through the first 40 minutes. Buffalo’s lone goal game on the power play early, but the Jets scored three goals in a stretch of 4:46 in the second period to seal the deal.

The defensive depth will be further tested when the Boston Bruins are here Friday, but Tuesday’s victory was also a testament to the buy-in on the defensive system. The Jets have now limited their opponents to one goal or less in 10 of their 32 games this season.

“It’s just good leadership,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice. “We’ve got the right people in the room saying the right things. I also think it goes a little deeper than that — we’ve got everybody in, everybody in the room has a piece of the preparation and it’s been good.

“With the players that we have, some part of our game won’t be as easy. But that doesn’t change any part of our game, there’s nothing that we can’t do. There’s a comfort level with where our game plan is and we’ve been pretty resilient in that.”

SCHEIFELE & CO SOARING

The Jets got two goals from Mark Scheifele — he now has six points (3G, 3A) in his last three games — a short-handed marker from Michael Frolik and another steady performance from Mathieu Perreault on the left side. That trio combined for six points and was easily the most effective line all night.

But the contributions did come from everywhere as Chris Thorburn and the fourth line scored, as did Evander Kane on the power play.

Scheifele was out for an eternity with the Sabres killing a penalty in the final three minutes but, with the crowd chanting his name, couldn’t bury his third for the hat trick.

“I could barely move my arms,” said Scheifele, grinning, of the long shift. “My shots were muffins, but the boys wouldn’t let me come off. It was pretty cool. (Frolik and Perreault) are both unbelievable players. I played with Fro a lot last year so I know how he plays and he’s a treat to play with. And Matty, I played a little bit with at the start of the year and now you see the amount of skill he has, the patience he has with the puck, the vision he has… I’m pretty lucky to play with those two guys.”

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

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