Jets claim victory over Flyers on home ice — a place where they haven’t seen many

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This article was published 21/03/2017 (3158 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has previously been dubbed one of the loudest barns in the league, an often hostile environment for visiting teams.

Now the MTS Centre is getting a different reputation around the NHL: a place where the enemy often swoops in and grabs two points before moving on to bigger and better things.

Fortunately for Winnipeg Jets fans, the hosts got a bit greedy and gave them something to cheer about Tuesday night as the Jets beat the struggling Philadelphia Flyers 3-2.

The line of Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler and Mathieu Perreault accounted for all Winnipeg’s offence, with one goal each. Scheifele and Wheeler also had a pair of assists, while Perreault had a single helper.

Winnipeg is now 18-18-1 at the MTS Centre in 2016-17, but remains on track for one of its worst seasons at home in the six years since relocating from Atlanta.

Coaches often say at the start of the season that the goal is to play .500 hockey on the road, then make your hay at home.

The Jets have done the first part with a respectable 15-15-6 out-of-town record. That puts them 16th overall in the NHL in enemy territory — a position that should have them in the playoff conversation.

The Anaheim Ducks, for example, have a .500 road record but they are 15 games above .500 at home, which explains why they are securely in a playoff spot and battling for the Pacific Division title. The Nashville Predators are worse than the Jets on the road, but cruising into the post-season thanks to being 13 games above .500 at home.

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Only the Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers have been worse than the Jets on home ice this season. And it’s not just the Jets’ playoff hopes that have taken a hit. The atmosphere inside the MTS Centre is not what it used to be. For a team that uses the slogan “Fuelled By Passion,” there hasn’t been a whole lot of that to be found this campaign.

Tuesday’s game was a prime example. The raucous “Go Jets Go” chant that used to precede the national anthems each game was almost non-existent. The notorious “True North” shout-out during O Canada was noticeably subdued. There were pockets of empty seats inside the arena for puck-drop — and some remained empty for the duration of the game. (Fans looking to move tickets will tell you it’s become a lot harder to find buyers these days.)

The scoreless first period was as lacklustre as they come, with neither team registering a shot on goal until nearly seven minutes had passed. The first real highlight came a few minutes into the middle frame when Jordan Weal opened the scoring and a few hundred Flyers fans sporting orange let out a loud cheer.

Perreault brought some excitement to the building when he tied the game 1-1 a few minutes later, deflecting Wheeler’s shot on the power play for his ninth goal of the season. Wheeler gave the Jets a 2-1 lead with little more than 12 minutes left in the third period when his wrist shot beat Flyers goalie Steve Mason (the 22nd goal of the season for the Jets captain). Scheifele added some insurance with his 29th of the season with little more than six minutes left in the game.

Philadelphia’s Matt Read beat Michael Hutchinson with two seconds left in the game to round out the scoring.

Winnipeg (33-33-7) has just four home games remaining — against the Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim, Ottawa Senators and Nashville — and is all but assured to miss the playoffs for the fifth time in six years. The Jets need to win two of those games to avoid their worst home season since the franchise arrived in Winnipeg.

Head coach Paul Maurice admits he’s trying to find out why his team often looks so different away from the MTS Centre.

“We play a simpler game on the road. That’s a direction we would try to go to in our 5-on-5 game especially. We have a tendency to overpass a little bit at home, overplay the puck, and I also think we have more mood swings at home,” he said Tuesday.

The Jets are one of the youngest teams in the league. So is all that youth to blame for those so-called mood swings?

“It’s a theory. I’m not sure it relates completely to that,” said Maurice, adding he believes it’s more a product of moving away from what brings them success and hitting the panic button.

“You feel it. You want to play well at home, it’s not going early, there’s a little more tension that creeps into your game. We’re a little more patient on the road. If you get behind it you keep it simple,” he said.

It’s likely no coincidence the Jets played a much safer, bland style Tuesday — the kind of game one often sees on the road — and came up with the win.

“We can’t expect to blow the doors off every team we play, no matter how good we think we are,” Wheeler said.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca