Jets blank Oilers, soar into 2018 at top of Central Division

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This article was published 31/12/2017 (2814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON – The good times keep rolling for the Winnipeg Jets as they capped off 2017 in style, defeating the Edmonton Oilers 5-0 in a New Year’s Eve affair Sunday night at Rogers Place.

It was a fitting end to the calendar year for the Jets, who in the span of 12 months have jumped from an underwhelming outfit that has watched the playoffs for five of its first six seasons since relocating from Atlanta to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender this year.

The Jets improve to 23-11-6 with the win and now have victories in three straight since returning from the Christmas break, two of which have come against the Oilers. Winnipeg also reclaims top spot in the Central Division with the victory, one point ahead of the Nashville Predators, who have two games in hand.

“That’s good for about 24 hours and that’s the way we’ve approach every day here,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice. “It will be April before it’s all decided, that’s for sure.”

Indeed, it’s quite the turnaround but as Maurice noted one his team isn’t taking lightly. With half a season still to go, lots can change from now until April.

But if Sunday’s outing —  a game in which the Jets were once again missing their No. 1 centre in Mark Scheifele and their highest-paid player in defenceman Dustin Byfuglien, as well as veteran D-man Toby Enstrom — is any sign of the future, it doesn’t look like they’ll be slowing down anytime soon.

“You don’t want to take that for granted. Obviously, there has been a lot of hard work that’s gone into that. We’re happy with our start,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler.

“But this is a big month for us coming up. We still have a lot of road games, a lot of tough games. We keep this thing going through January and we’re going to be in a good position come February, where we have a lot of home games. And we’ve been playing well at home. We’ve got to stay in the fight and keep doing the same things.”

Despite a strong year so far, Winnipeg has struggled on the road at times this season. The Jets entered Sunday’s game 1-5-3 in their last nine games away from Bell MTS Place. They play seven of their 11 games in January away from home, including the conclusion of their current two-game road trip in Colorado against the Avalanche Tuesday night. In February, the Jets have a 10-game home stand, playing in a building where they been almost unstoppable, going 14-3-1 so far this year.  

As for Edmonton, it’s been a turn in the opposite direction over the past year, a team resembling nothing like the one that made it to the Western Division final last season. With the loss, the Oilers fall deeper out of the playoff picture, dropping to 17-19-3. They have now lost three straight games after putting together a four-game winning streak – a run the Jets snapped with a 4-3 home win back on Dec. 27.  

But while the Oilers battled in that game until the bitter end, on this night they never seemed to find their footing, falling behind early, only for the Jets to continue to keep their foot on the gas the rest of the way. 

Marko Dano and Wheeler scored in the first period; Kyle Connor and Bryan Little added another pair in the second; and Mathieu Perreault scored the final goal in the third to cap off perhaps the Jets most dominating performance of the 2017-18 campaign. The Jets were 0-3 against the Oilers last season. On Sunday, they repaid the favour, clinching this season series 3-zip.

“Every year is so different. We like the way we’re playing,” said Maurice. “We got on the right side of it; I think tonight was our best performance.”

The Jets were boosted early by the unlikeliest of players, with Dano scoring his first goal of the season just two minutes and 34 seconds into the opening period. Despite the risk of rust from the inactivity, with Dano’s last game coming back on Oct. 27, the 23-year old showed some impressive vision and hands on the goal, working a give-and-go with Matt Hendricks to put the visitors up 1-0. 

“I’ve been waiting for a chance to play for a long time. I didn’t expect for it to go in on the first shot, in the first shift so it was great,” said Dano.

“It helped me to get to get my legs going a little bit because I didn’t feel very well in the warm up. It was a great feeling and now hopefully I’ll get some more ice time and be able to help the team up.”

Winnipeg doubled its lead later in the frame following a nice effort from the rookie Connor and an equally nice finish from Wheeler. Draped all over Matt Benning, Connor, with one hand on his stick, somehow managed to steal the puck from the Edmonton defender and slide it over to the Jets captain. Wheeler retrieved the pass on his backhand before getting it to the front of his blade and sneaking it past Cam Talbot for his 11th of the season and second in as many games.

“That would be the piece of his game that maybe kept him out of the National Hockey League last year that’s making him a really, really good player this year,” Maurice said of Connor. “He skates, he can shoot the puck and do a lot of things but he’s now on the puck with that speed and that good stick and creates that goal himself.”

“Your ability is going to make you a really good top-six player in the NHL but that’s the kind of thing that can make you an elite player,” added Wheeler. “Those are the types of plays that take you to that next level.”

Talbot finished with 33 saves to fall to 14-12-2 on the season.

The Oilers had the chance to gain some momentum back late in the first period when Tyler Myers was called for cross checking on Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Nugent-Hopkins would get the best chance – the Oilers’ only chance the 5-on-4 advantage – but Connor Hellebuyck stopped his shot in close on a cross-crease pass from Patrick Maroon.  

Hellebuyck finished with 35 saves for his third shutout of the season. He improved to 20-4-5 on the year and has earned points in his last six games, including five wins (5-0-1). Maurice said he plans to continue to run the hot hand of Hellebuyck, who is on pace to play a career-best 60 games this season. The most he’s played was last year, when he started 53 games.

“It’s rewarding, but I always expected this out of myself,” said Hellebuyck. “I’m not satisfied. I want more and I want to be better and I want to be the best I possibly can, every single day.”

The Jets killed off another Oilers’ power play early in the second period – one that Edmonton wouldn’t record a single shot on. Winnipeg made good on their first power play midway through the period, when Connor, tipping home a shot from Patrik Laine, scored his 13th of the season to record his second multi-point night in as many games.

Little made it 4-0, converting on slick feed from Josh Morrissey – a deflating dagger of a goal that crossed the line with two seconds left on the clock. 

Perreault then put a final stamp on the game in the third period, with a power-play goal (the Jets finished two-for-three on the man advantage) with 7:26 into the third. It was Perreault’s 10th goal of the season, giving the Jets six players now with double-digits in goals. The Jets have scored four or more goals 21 times this season – the most in the NHL.

“We’ve got that good offensive depth and then you got a guy like Bryan Little who hasn’t hit that mark yet so we still think there’s more there,” said Maurice.

“When you look at Perreault and Armia and what they were able to do tonight – I thought Joel was just outstanding tonight – you can pull two guys off what was your fourth line in terms of rotation and they can make an impact. There’s some nice skill there.”