Fourth line comes through

Scott Arniel had a feeling the dam was going to break, even if it took longer than he imagined it would.

The head coach of the Winnipeg Jets watched three of his four lines dip into an offensive funk the likes of which hadn’t been seen in these parts for quite some time.

After sorting his way through various permutations and combinations, Arniel decided to keep old faithful together, banking on them staying hot and the secondary scoring finally arriving from an alternative source.

Well, right on cue, Kyle Connor opened the scoring and then the Jets got a pair of fourth-line goals — from Cole Koepke and Tanner Pearson — to break a tie game and earn a 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night before a crowd of 13,682 at Canada Life Centre.

“When your fourth line can do that and score you two goals that’s a big game changer,” said Arniel, whose team improved to 14-12-1. “Especially in the second period of a tight game. We did a good job of not trying to open it up, and when those guys get an opportunity like that, a breakaway, 2-on-1 or 2-on-0, whatever it was, that’s big for our group.

“I don’t know if you saw our bench? Our bench was pretty excited about it as well. It just takes a little bit of heat off everyone.”

The Jets are back in action on Saturday in Edmonton against the Oilers before returning home to open a four-game homestand.

Koepke confessed it was impossible not to think about the importance of getting offence from players who were struggling to find the scoresheet.

“I’m sure that everyone is feeling the pressure,” said Koepke. “We’re not necessarily trying to think about it. But especially for us, as our line, we’re just trying to go out there, play as a group of three, wear the other team down, make sure we’re sound in our own end and create offence that way.

“Doing that worked really well for us. Both of our goals came from pressure and started in our own zone. That’s what we can continue to build on.”

Let’s take a closer look at this one:

FOURTH LINE ERUPTION

The fourth line that struck not once – but twice – during the second period to give the Jets some valuable breathing room.

The first goal was created by a turnover forced by Koepke at the defensive blue line.

Koepke stole the puck and sent Pearson in alone on a breakaway, with Pearson scoring to the glove side.

Koepke also made it 3-1 by going to the backhand for his first goal of the season after accepting a pass in the slot from Morgan Barron.

Pearson had one goal (and point) during his previous 20 games, so his marker came with a side order of relief.

As for Koepke, he had been limited to two assists through his first 17 games since joining the Jets, so you could see the weight that was lifted off his shoulders as well.

“Well he has such tremendous speed,” Arniel said of Koepke. “That’s something when I talked to him about (it), it’s (about) putting his speed on display as much as possible. And you’re going to get the chances. He has had some looks, he has had some opportunities. I know he was squeezing his stick like a lot of guys, but at the end of the day it was great to see him get his first.”

COMRIE SHINES

Four days after being pulled after giving up three goals on 14 shots in the first period of a 5-1 loss to the Sabres, goalie Eric Comrie delivered his second brilliant performance of the week.

Comrie was one of the biggest reasons the Jets came away with a point in Wednesday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens and he was even better on Friday, stopping 34 of 35 shots against his former team to improve his record to 6-5-1 in what was his 12th start of the season.

There were a number of quality saves made by Comrie in this one, including a sneaky good pad stop on Sabres forward Tage Thompson during the third period.

“I don’t know if there is a bad day in (Comrie’s) world. It’s such a positive attitude and it goes such a long way,” said Pearson. “He’s not quiet in the room, that’s for sure, amongst the guys. He’s got a great attitude and (played) a heckuva couple of games here. We’re just trying to help him out.”

The lone goal scored by the Sabres came on the power play from Jason Zucker.

By turning aside 63 of 66 shots over the last two games, Comrie has seen a sharp rise in his save percentage (up to .905), while his goals-against average is down to 2.82.

THE JUGGLE

There’s been plenty of speculation and debate about what Arniel might do with his line combinations of late.

After mulling over the potential to break up the top line in an effort to look for more balance, Arniel kept his line blending to the second and third units, flip-flopping captain Adam Lowry and Vladislav Namestnikov.

Lowry centred a line with Jonathan Toews (though he took several offensive zone draws) and Cole Perfetti, while Namestnikov moved back to the middle between Nino Niederreiter and Alex Iafallo.

The offensive output didn’t immediately follow for them, but Lowry earned his first career penalty shot midway through the second period when he was hooked by Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin.

Lowry tried to shoot a wrist shot through the five-hole, but he was stopped by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

KEY PLAY: Jets winger Cole Koepke forced Alex Tuch to turn over the puck at the defensive blue and sent in Tanner Pearson on a breakaway for the game-winning goal.

THREE STARS

Cole Kopeke, Jets, Scored a goal and set up another.

Eric Comrie, Jets, Finished with 34 saves, several of the highlight-reel variety.

Tanner Pearson, Jets, Scored the game-winner.

TOP LINE DELIVERS AGAIN

Make it two more goals for the Jets top trio.

Connor opened the scoring by finishing off a play set up by Gabe Vilardi 4:24 into the contest.

The goal by Connor was his 15th goal of the season and finished off a stretch that included 12 goals scored out of the 15 produced by the Jets team during that span.

Connor then returned the favour and set up Vilardi for the empty-net goal in the final minute of regulation time.

Vilardi is up to 11 goals, while centre Mark Scheifele has 14 and nearly had another — but it was wiped out by a coach’s challenge for offside.

“It’s hard when that line can score like that,” Arniel said after the morning skate. “You hope they can go out and do what they do and outscore the opposition. Whether that’s 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, and then hope the other guys chip in. The one thing about that line, they’re usually always on the plus side of chances and goals.”

When skating together at even strength through 27 games, the Scheifele line has outscored opponents 26-17 so far this season.

EXTRA, EXTRA

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck is two weeks into his recovery process and is progressing nicely.

“He’s got movement going. He hasn’t touched the ice yet,” said Arniel. “It’s getting close, though. Sort of his up, down stuff is starting to happen. It’s progressing as we’d hope.”

Arniel also said Jets defenceman Haydn Fleury has been removed from concussion protocol and is back on the ice. The next step in the process for Fleury is to get his conditioning up.

The Jets healthy scratches were defencemen Luke Schenn and Colin Miller and forward Gustav Nyquist.

Souris product Tyson Kozak missed both Sabres games against the Jets this week with an injury. He has two goals and four points in 19 games while averaging 12:24 of ice time per game.

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