Jets can’t hold candle to Flames

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This article was published 02/02/2015 (4212 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — The NHL all-star break has been over for more than a week.

Someone might want to tell the Winnipeg Jets.

A team that was just this side of unbeatable heading into the break — they were 5-0-1 — continues to find new ways to lose ever since, dropping their fourth straight game at the Scotiabank Saddledome Monday night, 5-2 to the Calgary Flames.

The free fall equals the Jets’ season-long losing streak set back in the first two weeks of the season and it has caused what barely a week ago was looking like a Jets’ stranglehold on a Western Conference wild-card spot to dwindle to a tenuous finger-hold.

The Flames are now just one point behind the Jets in the race for the conference’s first wild-card spot.

Add to that Los Angeles, Dallas, Colorado and Minnesota, who have also narrowed the gap on Winnipeg and all hold games in hand on the Jets, and Winnipeg’s current losing skid has quickly escalated from a minor curiosity to a matter of utmost urgency. 

How’d That Go?

Things got off to a promising start for Winnipeg — for a change, lately — when Blake Wheeler scored just 1:09 into the game off a nice pass from linemate Bryan Little.

What no one knew at the time was the Jets wouldn’t score again until Little scored midway through the third period when the game was already out of reach at 4-1.

The Flames tied the score just three minutes after Wheeler’s marker on a soft backhand by Flames forward David Jones that handcuffed Jets goaltender Michael Hutchinson.

And then Calgary took the lead for good early in the second period when Mason Raymond got behind the Jets defence and beat Hutchinson stick-side.

That was probably all the lead needed for a Calgary team that was a perfect 11-0-0 coming into Monday night when leading after the second period this season.

Calgary added an insurance marker early in the third period when D-man Raphael Diaz scored from the point. Diaz’s goal came with the Flames on the power play — the eighth goal the Jets have given up while short-handed in the last four games.

Flames forward Brandon Bollig scored Calgary’s fourth goal at 7:23 of the third and Sean Monahan added an empty-net goal at 17:27.

What About Hutch?

Hutchinson made his third start in a row, marking just the second time this season he has played three games in a row.

It’s an interesting time for the Jets to load up the work on Hutchinson and deviate from their goalie rotation. While the Jets rookie netminder continues to have better statistics than Ondrej Pavelec, he hasn’t been playing his best hockey lately.

Including Monday night, Hutchinson has given up 24 goals in his last eight games and looked shaky at times Monday, particularly on that backhand by Jones.

Hutchinson got the hook after Bollig’s goal and Pavelec — who head coach Paul Maurice indicated earlier on Monday would get the start tonight in Vancouver — mopped up.

Hutchinson gave up four goals on 23 shots.

West-Coast Bound

The Jets wrap up their abbreviated two-game road trip tonight against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.

It’s Winnipeg’s first date with the Canucks this season. They will play them twice more after tonight.

The Jets are 2-1-2 in the second half of back-to-back games this season. Winnipeg has just nine back-to-back series this season, which ties them with Los Angeles for the fewest in the NHL in 2014-15.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek

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