Road skid ends in dramatic fashion

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This article was published 19/12/2017 (2826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — On a night of herculean efforts by many of their biggest stars, it was 6-0, 180-pound Brandon Tanev who lifted the Winnipeg Jets to their biggest victory of the 2017-18 season.

The third-liner’s clutch goal, his third of the season with 1:26 left in the third period, proved to be the winner as the Jets surged to a 6-4 triumph over the Nashville Predators in NHL action at Bridgestone Arena Tuesday. The third-year winger zipped into the Predators’ zone, eluded the check of defender Roman Josi and ripped a shot through all-star goalie Pekka Rinne’s legs.

“It was just a good play by Josh Morrissey, a quick up, and I saw some separation there on the one-on-one and I tried to take a step wide,” said Tanev. “The ice isn’t too great, so (I was) just getting pucks to the net and I was fortunate to get a bounce there and it went through his legs. I think he felt I was going to try to go around the net and hit one of our late players.”

The victory helped the Jets improve to 20-10-5 for 45 points, one point back of the 21-8-4 Predators, who are tied with the St. Louis Blues atop the Central Division. The victory snapped an 0-4-2 skid on the road.

“This is a huge win, I mean, we just gutted it out,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler, who added an empty-netter with one second left. “There were mistakes made on both parts and we just kept fighting through everything. I thought we were poised, did enough to give ourselves an opportunity and an unsung hero steps up and makes a huge play. That one feels pretty good.”

Predators defenceman Yannick Weber scored his first of the season 30 seconds into the third period, tying the game at 4-4, to set the stage for a furious, frenzied final frame. 

Left-winger Nikolaj Ehlers fired a pair of goals, his 16th and 17th of the season, during a three-goal second-period outburst by the visitors, while sophomore right-winger Patrik Laine added his 17th earlier in the period to kick-start the Jets into a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes.

“We played the way we wanted to,” said Ehlers, who gave his team a boost when head coach Paul Maurice moved him onto Mark Scheifele’s top line, dropping Kyle Connor to Brian Little’s second unit. “We played hard and played fast. We knew how they were gonna play and got pucks to the net. And so we played a really good game here.”

Star blue-liner P.K. Subban had given Nashville a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 7:05 of the middle frame.   

Entering the game, the Predators had not given up a goal against in more than two games, a stretch that included shutouts by Rinne and Jusse Saros. That string ended at 8:05 of the opening period (a total 2:43:04 of shutout hockey) when Adam Lowry redirected Tyler Myers’ point shot and then potted the goal by swatting the loose puck from between Rinne’s legs and into the back of the cage.

Winnipeg’s tidy opening period came unravelled during a 21-second span late in the frame. First, Calle Jarnkrok’s weak shot was inadvertently redirected by Myers between Connor Hellebuyck’s legs at 19:19. Kevin Fiala then gave Nashville the lead, converting Craig Smith’s feed at 19:40. 

“I like the way we started, right to the 19-minute mark,” said Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice. “And handled being down a couple of times in a hard game. They had their first hard push in the first five minutes of that third. It went to even but there was a lot of good in that game. It was a good, grinding, fast game.”

Added Ehlers: “We played 19½ really good minutes (in period one). And then they scored two. But we didn’t give up. We came back, we played well, we played as a team and that got us the win.”

The Jets got a huge defensive effort from blue-liner Morrissey, who accounted for seven of Winnipeg’s 14 blocked shots.

Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and Nashville’s Rinne finished with 30 saves apiece.

Tanev and linemates Lowry and Andrew Copp combined for two goals and four points.

“I felt our line has been playing very well the last few games and it’s nice to get on the board offensively,” said Tanev. “The bottom-six mindset is defence-first and playing a team game and that’s our role but it’s nice to contribute when we can. It’s a huge win and a good feeling to start the road trip right here.”

Ehlers, meanwhile, was asked if the Preds were Winnipeg’s toughest test to date.

“It’s definitely one of them,” said Ehlers. “They’re pretty good all around. Their D is jumping in on the plays, pretty much every one is a good skater, which makes it hard to keep track.” 

Winnipeg continues its three-game road trip with a game in Boston against the Bruins Thursday night before wrapping up their pre-Christmas schedule against the New York Islanders Saturday afternoon. 

NOTEWORTHY:

Winnipeg went 1-for-5 on the power play while Nashville scored once in three chances… Recently recalled defenceman Julian Melchiori was a healthy scratch for the fourth consecutive game. Melchiori has four goals and 12 points in 26 games for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose in 2017-18. Left-winger Shawn Matthias and Marko Dano were Winnipeg’s other healthy scratches, , with Matthias sitting out his eighth consecutive contest… The Predators entered Tuesday’s action having won five consecutive games against Central Division foes with an 8-1-1 overall record against the division. Over that span, Nashville had a plus-15 goal differential and had converted on 31.4 per cent of its power-play opportunities… After Tuesday’s game, centre Bryan Little needs three more games to pass Chris Thorburn (709 games) for the most games played with the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers franchise. He’s spent his entire NHL career with the club. 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14