Jets’ victory over Stars eliminates bitter taste from earlier loss

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/10/2016 (3262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The timing seemed perfect. A home-and-home series against the Dallas Stars this week for the Winnipeg Jets meant they didn’t have to play the high-powered team from Texas the NHL has come accustomed to in recent years, which finished in top spot in the Western Conference last season with a 109 points.

Instead, it was one in recent weeks that has become a shell of themselves, depleted by injuries.

Indeed, Dallas, perhaps more than any other team this year, has felt the bite of the injury bug. Heading in the first game Tuesday night without six of their top 12 forwards — an injury list that included key contributors such as Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp, Ales Hemsky and Cody Eakin, as well as newcomer Jiri Hudler, who split last year between the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers — the Jets couldn’t capitalize on their opponent’s misfortune, eventually falling 3-2 at American Airlines Center.

The loss left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Jets, mostly because they believed they played their best hockey of the season. Returning home to the MTS Centre Thursday night, they vowed not to repeat the same mistakes they made just two nights before.

In what was their most complete game of the season, the Jets delivered with 4-1 win over the Stars. The win not only improved Winnipeg to 3-4 on the year, but injected some life into a locker room that had suffered consecutive losses, including a disappointing 3-0 defeat to the Edmonton Oilers in the spirited Heritage Classic Game on Sunday.

“The effort was definitely there in Dallas and the result wasn’t there,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler after the game. “You stay with it; you figure out the things we did well, we tried to replicate those things tonight and we got rewarded.”

With the loss, Dallas falls to 3-3-1, giving them their second loss in the last three games.

PLAYING WITH THE LEAD

One of the things Wheeler credited his team for was a strong first period. Through six games this season, the Jets had held the lead for just 17 minutes and two seconds —despite scoring first in each of the first three games of the year — and not once in the their last two.

On Thursday, they’d take the lead just 15 seconds into the opening frame and never looked back. Tyler Myers scored his second goal of the season after he turned a failed clearing attempt by Dallas into a shot from the the blue-line that appeared to handcuff Stars’ goalie Antti Niemi blocker-side.

“You look at that first shift and the whole reason I got that opportunity was because we were hard on the puck right away,” said Myers. “We scored 15 seconds in and we ran with it.”

Myers had taken some heat from the Jets’ fan base after a poor start to the year, and was especially scolded after head coach Paul Maurice hinted he wanted to increase Myers’ ice-time in order to unload some of the burden placed on Dustin Byfuglien, who entered the game averaging a league-high 29:30. On this night, Myers, who played a team-high 26:03, instead had them on their feet, triggering a solid opening 20 minutes.

The Jets outworked, out chanced, outshot (22-13) and outscored (2-0) the Stars in the first period. It was the kind of early dominance the Jets had rarely shown this season, with Winnipeg scoring just four goals in first period prior to Thursday.

CONNOR(S) COME THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH

Earlier in the day, following the Jets’ morning skate, Maurice spoke to the media for nearly seven minutes.

In his address, Maurice hoped for two things: that rookie Kyle Connor, who had been designated to the press box as a healthy scratch for Tuesday’s game against the Stars, learn from his first bit of adversity as a professional; and for one of his goalies to have a standout game, ultimately forcing him to break the current pattern of the rotating net minders each night.

He’d get both.

With Drew Stafford listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury he sustained Tuesday, Connor returned to the lineup with a promotion to the second line, playing alongside Nikolaj Ehlers and Mathieu Perreault.

The move paid off, as Connor scored his first career NHL goal at the 6:12 mark of the first period, converting a 2-on-1 pass from Ehlers with a high shot that beat a sprawling Niemi, who allowed four goals on 36 shots to earn his first loss of the year.

“It should give him some confidence,” said Maurice on Connor’s goal. “I’d like him and Nikky to develop some of that calm and confidence in their game.”

As for Connor Hellebuyck, the Jets second-year goalie had his coming out party, stopping all but one of the 39 shots he faced to earn his second win in four starts. His only blemish came in the first minute of the third period, when Stars forward Tyler Seguin found the small hole over Hellebuyck’s left shoulder on the power play. With the goal, Seguin now has 14 goals and 23 points in 15 games against the Jets as a member of the Stars.

“He put it in a nice spot,” said Hellebuyck. “I don’t think that goes in later in the season but I’ll give it to him tonight.”

As for earning a second consecutive start, that will have to wait as the Jets headed straight to the airport, en route to Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche tonight.

LAINE LIGHTS THE LAMP… AGAIN

Patrik Laine, the Jets rookie sensation picked second overall in June’s draft, wrote another chapter in what’s been an incredible start to his first season in the NHL. Laine scored twice, both of which came on the power play — he now has four the Jets five power-play goals this season — and each coming as the result of his blistering shot.

The 18-year-old Finn gave the Jets a 3-0 lead in the second period, and when it looked like the Stars were starting to mount a comeback, with Seguin’s goal early in the third making it a 3-1 game, he snapped one short-side on Niemi with seconds left on a 5-on-3 advantage.

It’s Laine’s second multi-goal game — he had a hat-trick in a come-from-behind win over Toronto Oct. 19 — which brings him to a total of six in seven games, putting him in a tie with No. 1 overall pick Auston Matthews and three other players for most in the league.

“It’s nice to be ahead of many guys,” said Laine, in a modest tone. “I just have to keep going.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton