Jets washed out by Hurricanes in Carolina

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This article was published 20/11/2016 (3272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice let his club off the hook Saturday night in Boston and got the desired effort from his troops less than 24 hours later.

He just didn’t get the result.

The will was there from the Jets at PNC Arena on Sunday evening, but the energy to sustain pressure and generate much offence against the Carolina Hurricanes simply was not.

The streaking Hurricanes got a first-period goal from Elias Lindholm and two power-play markers from Victor Rask and Noah Hanifin in the final frame to post a 3-1 triumph over a completely gassed Jets squad.

Playing a dozen games in 20 days, including three sets of back-to-backs, all on the road, has taken a heavy toll on the Jets, who have played the most of any team in the NHL.

Winnipeg (9-10-2) has lost three straight games on the road — finding the back of the net only four times during the stretch away from home. NHL leading scorer Mark Scheifele fired his 11th goal of the season (to go with 12 assists) midway through the third to slice the hosts’ lead in half, but that’s as close as the Jets would get.

The Hurricanes (7-6-4) have won four straight contests, all on home ice.

“I wasn’t looking for a response. I was just looking for it to go a different way. They gave what they had,” Maurice said after. “They can barely see straight, can’t pass the puck as well as they’d like, they’ve got nothing left. So, they did what they could do. I’ve got no problem with them.”

His intentions were good Saturday night as he shouldered the blame for his club’s poor effort in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, saying the Jets’ lack of preparation and execution – the Jets mustered just 12 shots at TD Garden – was on him.

It was a crafty move, offering one day’s grace. But from the outset against a young, speedy and hard-working group like the Hurricanes, expecting a different outcome in a rare late-afternoon start proved too tall an order.

Faceoff wins tilted heavily in the favour of the guys in black (36-23) and they won the majority of puck battles, so the Jets were forced to chase the game on rubber legs.

“I’m not going to line this up as a game that we played really well and critique it and say what wasn’t there. That team played 17 in 29 (days) and has been all over the God green earth, and playing a 5 o’clock game here today. So they’re beat up, they’re sore, they’re tired and I think they gave what they had,” Maurice said.

“All I wanted them to do was talk to each other on the bench, I wanted them to say the right things. I wanted them to compete hard (and) they did. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t graceful, it’s over.”

The Jets get a day’s rest in Minnesota on Monday and will practise Tuesday as they prepare for a clash with the Wild in St. Paul on Wednesday night.

The road trip winds up Friday in Nashville against the Predators.

Shuffling the deck

Maurice noted Saturday that while preparing his club for battle is one of his chief responsibilities, running his bench is the other. With that, he altered three line combinations against Carolina, reuniting captain Blake Wheeler with Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers on the top unit while dropping Patrik Laine down to a second unit with Adam Lowry and Andrew Copp.

It didn’t immediately pay off as Carolina burned the top trio for its first goal as Lindholm walked out from below the goal line virtually unchallenged and roofed a shot over goalie Connor Hellebuyck’s right shoulder.

The Jets surrendered 25 shots through 40 minutes and Hellebuyck was solid to keep it a one-goal game heading into the third.

“Always, no matter what part of the game it is, you want to be just one shot away,” he said. “Everyone knows that and it drives the team forward, it gets the energy going a bit and that was my goal tonight.”

Hellebuyck finished with 37 saves, while ‘Canes goalie Cam Ward stopped 28 drives.

Wheeler said working through the exhaustion came down to pride.

“(Saturday) wasn’t what we wanted, so we wanted to come out here and play like men tonight and play hard,” he said.

“It’s been a pretty big grind here, almost like I’ve never experienced before. We’re a tired hockey team, no question about that. We’ve got a group that will fight through it, but we need to get our rest.”

Special teams a factor

The Jets were ornery, dishing out 51 hits, but some of that grit worked against them as they were nailed for nine minor penalties, resulting in seven chances for the ‘Canes with the man advantage.

Defenceman Mark Stuart, played for the first time in November after missing 10 games with an injury, took a cross-checking minor penalty early in the third period — after giving Jordan Staal one too many whacks — that led to Rask’s eventual game winner.

“I gave him a couple of shots but I only had one hand on my stick. I knew it was Staal. He’s probably the strongest guy on their team, so I was just trying to keep him down until we got control of the puck because I thought the puck was underneath him.

“I definitely did give him an extra shot but a cross-check? I don’t know about that. That’s the way he’s calling a game so I gotta know better.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @WFPJasonBell