Power play the difference in loss to Bruins

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This article was published 22/01/2022 (1323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOSTON — Playoff teams typically find ways to win. Those who don’t get invited to Lord Stanley’s annual spring fling frequently snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

That, in a nutshell, sums up Saturday’s skirmish at TD Garden, in which the Winnipeg Jets skated away with frustrating 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins. It’s easy to see which team is a legitimate contender right now, and which is not.

“We had some opportunities. They capitalized on theirs. We had some good chances. The difference is they scored one more goal,” said interim Jets coach Dave Lowry.

That was certainly the case on the power play, which proved to be the major difference. Boston had one chance with the extra man in the third period, and David Pastrnak ripped home the go-ahead goal that turned out to be the game-winner. Winnipeg had three consecutive opportunities, including a late six-on-four with Connor Hellebuyck out for an extra attacker, and never really came close to tying it up.

Rather than put pucks on net and hope for a deflection, rebound or any other type of crease chaos, the Jets were mainly kept to the perimeter.

“I think what you have to do is give the opposition, give Boston credit. They got pressure. We didn’t get the shot opportunities that we felt were warranted on the power play. Give your opposition credit,” Lowry said, essentially refusing to point the finger of blame at his own pass-happy troops

“That just shows you how tough it is to win in the National Hockey League. The difference is its one shot. You know what, we did a lot of really good things in this game today. The good thing is we have an opportunity to get back at it again tomorrow.”

Indeed, the Jets return to action Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh, looking to salvage a win from a four-game trip that has them at 0-2-1 so far. Overall, they are 17-14-6 on the year and remain outside the Western Conference playoff line as they approach the midway point of the season. Boston improves to 24-12-2, including 10-2-0 in the month of January.

“It’s good to be frustrated, you know. It’s good to be mad after losses. I have a midnight rule, where at midnight, you turn to the next game. But it’s okay to be frustrated and be mad, but we also (have) a sense of urgency,” said forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, who provided one of the highlights of the game when he crushed Boston forward Charlie Coyle right through a pane of glass.

“If you look at the standings, the playoff race is about to start and you know, you look at some teams, they have one back-to-back after the All-Star break, they have three games, four games in 12 days. We’re going to have six back-to-backs. The schedule is not looking easy, so we have to get these points now and we have to figure it out now. It’s not like anybody in our dressing room right now isn’t trying their best. Everybody wants to win, everybody is getting frustrated with these losses. But at midnight, we have another game tomorrow, and that’s just what we have to look forward to.”

Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler returned for the first time since suffering a knee injury on Dec. 10 in Vancouver. He missed nine games, which would have been twice as many if not for nine others postponed by the pandemic. He skated on the top line with Mark Scheifele and Andrew Copp, playing 21:39 and registered two shots on goal. Evgeny Svechnikov came out of the lineup.

“When I looked at the calendar right away when I got hurt, I didn’t think today was a game that I was gonna be playing in, so it was good to be back, for sure,” said Wheeler. “I think a lot of good in that game for our team, just one shot away really from that looking like a pretty darn good road win. Unfortunately, there’s no moral victories right now. We need to win games, so that was a tough way to lose.”

As for the sputtering power play which went 0-for-4, Wheeler chalked it up to just a day at the office.

“I don’t know. I thought the guys have done a pretty good job. I haven’t been out there. I think we’ve been scoring at a decent clip,” said Wheeler. “I mean, you’re not going to score every night on the power play. It seemed like those guys have been coming pretty darned close getting one every game here the last little bit. It’s not going to go your way every night and tonight was the night it didn’t go our way.”

Forward Nikolaj Ehlers, who suffered a knee injury last Tuesday in a 4-3 overtime loss in Washington, was placed on long-term injured reserve Saturday morning to make room for Wheeler on the roster. He’s not eligible to return until Feb. 14 at the earliest. The Jets sure could have used his creativity on the power play in this one.

Winnipeg welcomed back defenceman Brenden Dillon, who missed the last three games while in COVID-19 protocol. Logan Stanley was a healthy scratch for the first time this year, as Lowry opted to keep young Dylan Samberg in the lineup.

The Jets were looking for a much better start than the one 48 hours ago in Nashville, in which they fell behind 3-0 and never recovered in an eventual 5-2 loss. And they got it when Jansen Harkins took a drop pass from Dominic Toninato just 2:46 into the game and beat Boston netminder Tuukka Rask for his fourth of the year.

Harkins then used his hands for evil, not good, when he got into a spirited scrap with Connor Clifton a few minutes later. Austin Poganski also chucked knuckles with Brandon Carlo later in the opening frame, proving that Saturday afternoon’s alright for fighting as well.

Oskar Steen tied the game at 11:37 of the first after a bungled play by Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo, but Copp gave the visitors the lead once again with 26 seconds left before the first intermission.

That would be it for offence in this one for Winnipeg. Coyle tied it at 2:31 of the second period, tipping a Derek Forbort point shot past Hellebuyck. And then came the dagger from Pastrnak at 3:59 of the final frame, with Adam Lowry in the sin bin for tripping.

Winnipeg couldn’t muster any kind of an attack from that point on, despite back-to-back-to-back power plays.

“Well, let’s not take anything away from Boston. They make it tough,” said Lowry. “If you watch this team or you watch them play on a consistent basis, they do a really good job of getting in lanes. They do a really good job of keeping plays to the outside. And you know what? I would give them some credit in their own end with the way they work defensively.”

Rask finished the game with 22 saves on 24 shots. Hellebuyck stopped 29 of 32 pucks he faced.

“We don’t have a chance to sit back and sulk about it. We get to turn the page right away,” Wheeler said of having another game immediately. “Sometimes, if you end the road trip with a big win, you forget about what happened before. That would be good way to go home, back to Winnipeg, and play in front of an empty building.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg