Jets lose to Utah 4-1

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This article was published 05/04/2025 (196 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SALT LAKE CITY – Welcome to the land of missed opportunities.

With a valuable chance to widen the gap in the Central Division and Western Conference races, along with the Presidents’ Trophy race, the Winnipeg Jets were unable to find anything close to their gold standard until it was too late as they fell 4-1 to Utah HC on Saturday at Delta Center.

“Yeah for sure it is. But you know what, we’ve talked about it for the last three, four weeks. We’re not waiting for some other team to beat Dallas. We can’t sit and do that,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We have to go out and take care of our buisness. If we’re going to win this division, win it by winning hockey games.”

That’s the right approach for Arniel and the Jets to take, but this was a massive chance for the Jets to pull six points ahead and they let it fall by the wayside.

“We had the door open there with the Dallas game earlier and could have put a stranglehold on it, and we really shot ourselves in the foot,” said Jets forward Cole Perfetti. “We would have liked to have had this effort back.”

To be frank, this game wasn’t even as close as the score suggested.

At least not until a third-period comeback that fell short.

For the first two periods, the Jets were second in most races and puck battles and lost the special teams battle, allowing a pair of power play markers, while scoring once with the man-advantage in four opportunities.

“Not very good for two periods,” said Arniel. “Utah was the better team. Dominated us in all areas. Puck battles. Turnovers. They got their rush game going. We knew they were going to be good in that department. And they’re really good in the first periods. We talked about it before the game and we just weren’t ready to go.

“Dominated in the third but it’s a buck short and a day late. It is frustrating because that’s usually us dominating teams. They came out and got to their game plan fast. We just weren’t good enough.”

The Jets, who went 1-2 on the road trip, return to action on Monday at Canada Life Centre against the surging St. Louis Blues, who won a 12th consecutive game on Saturday.

“They’re hot right now. They’re playing really well, getting some good goaltending and obviously their offence, they’re scoring a lot of goals,” said Perfetti. “We’ve seen the last couple games, they’re not out of it until the game’s over, they’ve had some comeback wins in overtime, scoring late with the goalie pulled.

“Things are going right for their group. They’re a good team, we know what they’re all about. We just have to focus on our effort and if we take care of ourselves, the results should go our way.”

Let’s take a cloer look at this one:

NOT-SO-SPECIAL TEAMS

The Jets had been trending upwards on the penalty kill in recent weeks, but they allowed a pair of power-play markers in this one as they fell behind 2-0.

On the first power play chance, Utah HC needed only seven seconds to get on the board as Barrett Hayton found Clayton Keller all alone.

On the power play, the Jets generated several high-danger chances, including a slot shot from Mark Scheifele in the second period that rattled off the crossbar and a point-blank opportunity from Cole Perfetti that Karel Vejmelka stopped with his blocker.

Scheifele buried a rebound at 2:45 of the third period to put the Jets on the board.

“It’s nice to get one, but it would have been nice to get one earlier and give ourselves more time to get back in the game,” said Perfetti. “We had chances. Obviously their goalie played well. We had really good looks, a couple unfortunate bounces and unlucky plays that didn’t end up in the net that could. That’s just how she goes sometimes.”

The Jets power play has been a weapon for them for the majority of this season, but it’s been out of sync now for an extended period of time, dating back to returning from the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

However, after power-play goals in consecutive games, the Jets are hoping they can turn the corner here and heat up on the power play before the playoffs arrive.

THE PROMOTION

Perfetti was the most effective Jets’ skater in this one, earning a promotion to the top line with Kyle Connor and Scheifele.

Arniel gave them several shifts together in the first period, then went to them for all of the third and they generated a lot of scoring chances.

“I was just kind of mixing all the lines up a little bit, just to get a spark,” said Arniel. “Those three guys have skill and Cole holds onto pucks and does kind of what Scheif and ‘KC’ do so I felt I just wanted to get those guys out there as much as possible. They spent an awful lot of time in that end of the rink, was hoping for a little bit more but they had some real good opportunities.”

Scheifele liked what he saw from Perfetti.

“He played great. He was in the right spot, he made a lot of great passes,” said Scheifele. “He did a lot of good things out there, so it was fun to play with him in the third.”

THE MILESTONE

Scheifele’s goal was the 800th point in his NHL career, coming in his 874th game.

“Yeah, obviously cool, but obviously it would have been better in a win,” said Scheifele.

Scheifele had several glorious opportunities to increase those goal and point totals, leading the Jet with six shots on goal and nine shot attempts.

Shortly after his goal, Scheifele got in alone but was unable to get his backhand chance past Karel Vejmelka.

“If I get it up a little more, I’d probably have a better chance,” said Scheifele, who is up to 38 goals and 83 points in 77 games. “he made a good save.”

THE RACE

Sidney Crosby recorded a hat trick as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Dallas Stars on Saturday afternoon, providing a massive opportunity for the Jets to create some valuable breathing room in the chase for top spot in the Central Division standings.

Instead, the cushion sits at four points – with five games left for the Jets and six for the Stars.

The Stars, whose seven-game winning streak was snapped, are back in action on Sunday afternoon against the Minnesota Wild, with a chance to pull within two points of the Jets.

It’s been mentioned multiple times of late, but the final head-to-head battle of the regular season between the Jets and Stars on Thursday is looming large for both clubs with aspirations of finishing first in the Central.

THE KEY PLAY

Dylan Guenther found Barrett Hayton on the backdoor for a power play goal that extended the lead to 2-0 and ended up being the game-winner.

THE THREE STARS

1. Karel Vejmelka, Utah HC, finished with 32 saves while making his 20th consecutive start.
2. Barrett Hayton, Utah HC, scored a power-play goal and set up the game-winner.
3. Cole Perfetti, Jets, tenacious play continued and he had three shots on goal and six shot attempts.

EXTRA, EXTRA

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made his 58th start and 59th appearance, finishing with 24 saves. He did his best to keep his team within striking distance, including a pad save off Nick Schmaltz.

Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers missed Saturday’s game with a foot injury he sustained on Thursday after blocking a shot from Golden Knights defenceman Nic Hague. Ehlers was fortunate the injury wasn’t more serious and he’s considered day-to-day.

The absence of Ehlers opened the door for David Gustafsson to return to the lineup after he was a healthy scratch on Thursday. He skated on the fourth line with Morgan Barron and Jaret Anderson-Dolan.

The healthy scratches for the Jets on Saturday were defencemen Haydn Fleury and Ville Heinola and goalie Chris Driedger.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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