Jets on right side of blown lead with 4-3 comeback win in New York

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This article was published 02/12/2018 (2470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK — Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice called it a special night, not just because of the gutsy way the Jets prevailed but also who they needed to wait out and eventually overpower to make it happen.

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist put in the finest puck-stopping performance the Jets have faced this season on Sunday night, stopping 39 of 42 shots fired his way at Madison Square Garden. Eight of those drives were generated during a frenetic three-on-three overtime session as Winnipeg’s three-goal, third-period blitz carried into the extra five-minute frame.

Finally, Mark Scheifele stamped the exclamation point on a remarkable comeback with a hard, low shot past Lundqvist in the shootout and a 4-3 triumph over the New Rangers.

Winnipeg (16-8-2) is now two-for-two on a road trip in the New York area. The Jets complete their stay Tuesday in Brooklyn against the New York Islanders.

Other than swapping in starting netminder Connor Hellebuyck for Laurent Brossoit, Maurice chose to go with what worked Saturday in New Jersey. The final score was identical to Saturday’s conclusion against the Devils, however, no two games could look more dissimilar.

Instead of watching a lead evaporate — only to win on a Scheifele snipe in overtime in Newark — Winnipeg’s crew trailed 3-0 after 40 minutes in the Midtown sports shrine and had to find a solution to the Lundqvist dilemma in order to claw its way back.

“Yeah, I liked our game. On back to back, there’s some things that weren’t clean. The puck was bouncing for both teams, it was hard to get a handle on it. But we got better, we got stronger,” said Maurice. “The thing would be to be down 3-0 and come out and keep going to the very end, it’s impressive.”

Monumentally so, in fact, considering the impenetrable wall constructed in the crease by New York’s 14-year veteran goalie, whose moving parts still perform with quickness and dexterity. Astonishingly, Lundqvist — a slam-dunk for a future call to the NHL Hall of Fame — was viewed as worthy of only a third-star mention when the game’s top performers were revealed at the end of the evening.

Maurice was quick to laud the Swedish product, who turns 37 early in March.

“Well, Henrik Lundqvist is a brilliant, brilliant player. I think sometimes you see it on TV and they slow it down, but you lose it when you see it on a replay and then you almost have to be at ice level. We’ve got some world-class shooters — the NHL does, too — but we do have some great shooters here. Some of those saves… like it’s kind of like watching Blake Wheeler skate or Patty Laine shoot, it’s just elite,” said the Winnipeg bench boss.

“So, it wasn’t a lot of fun watching until the very end but then you have to tip your hat and say that was a special night. There’s a chance if you’re a Rangers season-ticket holder, you kind of get used to it. But that was a special night.”

Only a few skaters donning Jets colours would say post game that they weren’t stymied by Lundqvist. He stole what looked like sure goals from Kyle Connor, on a couple of occasions, Jack Roslovic, Blake Wheeler and Patrik Laine.

But Scheifele’s power-play goal just 2:10 into the third period — his 16th of the season and third in two nights — finally sparked the rally for a squad that’s been guilty lately of blowing late leads of its own. He ripped his patented one-timer after Wheeler placed the puck on a tee with a perfect pass through traffic.

Roslovic, with his second of the year, narrowed the gap just under three minutes later and then Bryan Little deposited a rebound behind Lundqvist, his fifth tally of the year, with 2:30 left in regulation time after a bullet drive from Nikolaj Ehlers.

“I don’t think we felt like we were out of the game. We felt like (Lundqvist) stopped a lot of Grade-A chances, ones that we normally bury,” said Wheeler, whose 30 assists ranks him third in the league in that category behind only Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen (34) and Toronto’s Mitch Marner (32).

“They’ve got a pretty good guy between the pipes, so if it was gonna be one of those nights where he stole a game, it would have been frustrating. But our mindset going into the third was, ‘Just try to throw everything at him, see if we can squeak one by him and get a little momentum.’

“We’ve given a few away, so it was nice to flip the script a little bit and steal one when we were coming from behind,” added the captain.

At 3-2, Hellebuyck was tested by Vinni Lettieri after a flub by Jets blue-liner Tyler Myers but he snapped out his glove to keep his club close. It was a timely save for a guy who’s taken heat lately for allowing some softies, although it would be almost unfair to blame him for any of the Rangers shots that eluded him.

“(The glove save) felt nice. Personally, I needed that because I wanted to be part of that game. There wasn’t a whole lot of shots. I knew I needed to be called upon and I answered the bell,” said Hellebuyck, who was tested just 19 times.

The Jets bolted from the gate with gusto but the ineffectiveness of their power-play units killed the mood. Zone entry was a chore, and once they finally set up shop their puck movement was lethargic.

The Rangers (13-12-3) killed off three straight short-handed situations and then scored the only goal of the opening period to lead 1-0. Jesper Fast one-timed a shot past Hellebuyck with just 2:28 left in the period after a perfect pass from Mika Zibanejad.

New York rewarded Lundqvist with a two-goal cushion at the 12:11 mark of the second period when blue-liner Marc Staal snapped in his second goal of the season, and then Rangers’ leading goal-scorer Chris Kreider beefed up the lead with his 14th goal late in the period.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell