Unfamiliar territory

Dylan DeMelo made it clear that this was not a sound-the-alarm situation, though it does require some significant attention from the Winnipeg Jets.

As the Jets were blanked 3-0 on Sunday at Canada Life Centre to close out a three-game homestand with a 1-2 record that dropped them to 12-9-0 for the season, DeMelo reinforced the need for his team to find its trademark consistency and fast.

“I don’t think we are playing the way we want to play. We aren’t even close to where we need to be to be a successful team when it really matters down the road,” said DeMelo. “We’ve shown it in flashes but it hasn’t been consistent. We need to find that consistency, but we are only a quarter of the way into the season here. It’s that point where we need to start stringing games together and we’ll worry about the result. Usually when we’re playing well, we feel confident when we play our game and do the right thing, the result will take care of itself. We are exactly what our record says we are.”

The Jets open a five-game road trip on Wednesday against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.

“Consistency, whether that’s period to period or game to game, has been something that I’d say in this first 21 has been lacking,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We always took a lot of pride in staying in and winning one goal games. Right now, that’s not happening. We’ve got to look first at that.”

The Jets have dipped to 10th in the Western Conference, just below the playoff line for the first time in a long time.

“Given how things went on that previous road trip and even this little homestand here, I don’t think we’re too happy with how things have gone in the last six-plus games,” said Jets centre Jonathan Toews. “So, obviously we need to be back in the bunch as far as the standings go. Try and focus on the road trip coming up and set a goal for us to climb into a better spot than we’re in right now.”

Let’s take a closer look at this one:

THE POWER OUTAGE – The Jets had been cruising along on the power play of late, delivering at least a goal in each of the previous five games (going six-for-12 in the process).

But after not allowing a shorthanded goal in the first 19 games of the campaign, the Jets surrendered one in each of the past two games, including a critical marker that extended the deficit to 2-0 at 18:12 of the second period on Sunday.

“That’s a huge concern,” said Arniel. “Obviously, the other night (against the Carolina Hurricanes, it was a tie game, and it was the game winner, and (on Sunday) we’re down one. And instead of staying in games, we get beat up ice. Two games in a row, we got beat up ice.

“And some other things happened prior to that, whether it’s a turnover or where it’s a puck battle on the wall, but we can’t get beat up the ice like we did two games in a row. They’re costly. Those goals are costly.”

Both shorthand markers came against the Jets’ top unit, so Arniel was clearly sending a message when he sent the second unit out early for the man-advantage early in the third period.

THE INJURY – Jets defenceman Neal Pionk became the latest member of the walking wounded when he left the game in the first period.

Pionk tweaked something with his right leg after delivering a hit on Wild centre Danila Yurov on his first shift of the contest.

You could tell something was bothering Pionk as he made his way to the bench, as he was constantly trying to loosen things up.

Although he stayed in the game for a few shifts, and even caught Wild centre Joel Eriksson Ek on the back check to prevent a shorthanded breakaway, Pionk never really got fully comfortable and eventually had to depart.

Pionk finished with four shifts for 2:05 of ice time and the initial hope is that this ailment will fall into the day-to-day category, though Arniel said further evaluation would be required before determining the severity.

Asked if some insurance would be required for the upcoming road trip, Arniel said it was too early to make that call.

‘We’ll wait and see what the docs have to say,” said Arniel.

If Pionk is going to miss time, the Jets could consider recalling top defence prospect Elias Salomonsson — especially since Haydn Fleury remains in concussion protocol.

Salomonsson had a strong training camp and is having a steady start to the campaign with the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League, with six assists in 17 games.

If the Jets are content to roll with a right side of Dylan DeMelo, Colin Miller and Luke Schenn, it’s possible Kale Clague or Ville Heinola could be called up to serve in more of a seventh D-man role.

THE SCRAP – With the Jets off to a sluggish start to the second period after an evenly-played first, captain Adam Lowry went over to Marcus Foligno prior to a faceoff in the offensive zone and the Wild forward accepted the invitation to tussle.

It was a spirited scrap between two tough customers and it was clear Lowry was hoping to provide a spark by dropping the gloves.

“I don’t think you want to fight too many times on an o-zone face-off, but I think probably, that’s what it was,” said DeMelo. “I think you’re right on that. He’s our heart and soul, for sure. And he goes against one of the toughest guys in the league too, and was trying to give us a boost. It sucks that we couldn’t maybe get the ball rolling there for a guy to sacrifice like that in a fight. We’d love to have gotten one or at least gotten some momentum and turn some shifts over and things like that.”

Arniel appreciated the latest show of leadership from Lowry.

“Yeah, exactly what it was,” said Arniel. “We were down one. We were doing things that we hadn’t done in the first (period). He felt it was something he needed to do. That’s stuff that Adam does. I really would like our response after that to be a lot better than it was.”

THE KEY PLAY

Marcus Johansson found defenceman Brock Faber on an odd-man rush for a shorthanded goal that made it 2-0 late in the second period.

THE THREE STARS

Jesper Wallstedt, Wild, made 32 saves to record the shutout.

Brock Faber, Wild, scored a goal, played nearly 25 minutes.

Danila Yurov, Wild, provided the game-winning goal.

EXTRA, EXTRA – The win by the Wild snapped a string of nine consecutive victories for the Jets in head-to-head meetings, dating back to March of 2023.

Jets centre Mark Scheifele skated in his 900th NHL game on Sunday afternoon, recording two shots on goal and four shot attempts in just under 22 minutes of ice time.

The Jets healthy scratches were defenceman Luke Schenn and forward Tanner Pearson. With Schenn scratched, Colin Miller returned to the lineup and had a season-high 20 minutes and 11 seconds of ice time, recording two shots on goal, one hit and two blocked shots.

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