Missed chances turn momentum

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This article was published 21/02/2016 (3517 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Artificial intensity is just not an option in the NHL.

Saturday night at BB&T Center, the Winnipeg Jets tried to find a way to match the passion and push they summoned up Thursday in an emotional game in Tampa.

They almost made it, but struggled and fell 3-1 to the Florida Panthers.

“Yeah… it’s hard for me to like it because we weren’t as good in our own end as I think we can be,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said, asked for his read on the team’s much-discussed battle level. “But I don’t think it was the cost of the game.”

The Jets had some ragged time in their own end and when push came to shove in a 1-1 game in the third, they gave up a power-play goal by Riley Smith in the third and Jaromir Jagr’s second of the game to salt it away.

“Yeah, it (the battle) was there,” Jets captain Andrew Ladd said. “We skated well tonight. We still, when the game’s on the line, especially that last goal against, we’ve got to be really hard on those pucks and make sure we’re stronger in those tight plays. We still have to learn to get it up another level.”

The what-ifs in this contest for the visitors was the basket full of chances they missed in the second period.

Blake Wheeler was stopped by Roberto Luongo on a breakaway. Chris Thorburn flubbed his in-alone chance and Mathieu Perreault also misfired on a breakaway as the Panthers appeared to be dizzy when crossing into their own half of the ice.

“We had a bunch there in the second half of the second period, in alone a couple of times, but that’s what that guy (Luongo) does so well,” Maurice said. “He’s going to clean up those mistakes and keep you in that tight game. They have enough firepower up front.”

Perreault was clearly frustrated after the game.

“We had plenty of chances,” he said. “Blake had a breakaway and Luongo made the save. I had a breakaway and missed and if we score those, we’re up 3-1 and we’re playing with the lead and it’s a much different game. Instead, they come down and get one and now we’re behind and chasing again.

“That’s frustrating because we don’t feel like we’re playing a bad game at all. We get our chances, miss, and that’s the game.”

Ladd said it was a case of too many misses.

“We had the opportunities to put the puck in the net,” he said of the Jets’ 31 shots. “We had a couple of breakaways and odd-man rushes and in tight games like that, you have to find a way to put one in the net.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca