Loss stings but Jets plan ‘bounce-back’ in Music City

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This article was published 05/03/2015 (3869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been a familiar tune this season but the Winnipeg Jets plan to employ their selective memory rather than beat themselves up over Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators at the MTS Centre.

The result stings, in part because the Jets were unable to handle the Senators playing on the second night of a back-to-back. And stings more, because their rivals in Minnesota were able to turn back Ottawa on Tuesday, albeit in a shootout, to creep closer to the first wild-card spot occupied by the Jets.

Jets captain Andrew Ladd, like many of his teammates, saluted Sens goalie Andrew Hammond for his 35-save victory.

“Obviously he played really well and it’s us just not putting the puck in the net,” Ladd said. “There were a couple of opportunities to put it in and it was kind of one of those nights. We’ll put this one behind us and move on to this stretch of games coming up here that are really important.”

Jets centre Mark Scheifele, who seemed to be on the puck plenty on Wednesday, said the team will not fret about dropping this one to the Sens at a time when points are at a premium.

“You don’t want to lose any games but we knew coming into this stretch that you’re not going to win every single game,” Scheifele said. “It’s the bounce-back; we have to know that our next game will be even better and the biggest thing is not to lose two in a row. We know we’re going to lose games but it’s all about the bounce-back.”

The Jets leave Friday for a four-game road trip that starts Saturday in Nashville.

The lamentation on Wednesday’s game included Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson expressing his disappointment with one turning point — Bobby Ryan’s second-period power-play goal that made it 2-0.

Just prior to Ryan’s laser-like shot, the Jets had pressed the issue in search of a short-handed goal and never did get back into a set defensive posture.

“It was unfortunate that on our first penalty kill, we tried to get a little too offensive on that in a 1-0 game, especially this late in the season,” Hutchinson said. “That was a goal that ended up being a huge difference in the game.

“I think overall we played really well, took it to them, and their goalie played really well tonight.”

Jets coach Paul Maurice said his team would feel “lousy” the rest of the evening and get back to work to prepare for the road trip.

“There will always be in a loss things you don’t like, things you want to do better, how we got the puck to the net, timing of getting it to the net, decisions we made not to put it at the net at times,” Maurice said. “But no, we didn’t take them lightly.”

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Wednesday’s game marked the first appearance in polar-night blue for left-winger Lee Stempniak, who played 12:48 and had one shot on goal.

“Better as it went along, personally,” Stempniak said.

“Early on I just tried to move my feet and get some bumps in and handle the puck a little bit. It felt more comfortable as it went along. I felt I was able to make some plays and I thought we played a really good game as a team, just didn’t capitalize early on our chances and they did.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca