Jets bounce back against Leafs

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This article was published 31/03/2018 (2721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — The Winnipeg Jets returned to form Saturday night, resembling the team that won six straight at home and nothing like the squad that took a beat down in Chicago a few days ago.

But the Jets have demonstrated an ability to bounce back from less-than-exemplary performances throughout the 2017-18 NHL season.

Initiating hyper-speed, a gritty fore-check, defensive soundness and stingy goaltending, the Jets left Toronto with a well-earned 3-1 victory over the Maple Leafs.

The Jets neutralized the high-flying Leafs — who played Friday night in Brooklyn, N.Y., downing the Islanders 5-4 — but showed some burnout effect in the second period as Winnipeg struck for three straight goals to take command.

And it wasn’t the usual suspects who provided the firepower.

Defencemen Josh Morrissey and Dustin Byfuglien wired shots that eluded goalie Curtis McElhinney within a span of 70 seconds, while Andrew Copp, a major contributor in a shut-down role with linemates Adam Lowry and Brandon Tanev, aided the cause with a goal late in the period.

Blake Wheeler said the Jets stuck to the script, letting their skating legs and a will to out-work their opponent be the difference.

“(The Maple Leafs) are a group that wants time, wants space, wants to be creative. With the way our guys move back there, if they take that away, it’s tough (for the opposition),” said Wheeler, whose assist on Byfuglien’s goal was his 67th of the season to lead the NHL.

The victory, coupled with the Dallas Stars’ 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild, guaranteed the Jets will finish no worse than second place in the Central Division and own home-ice advantage for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Jets (48-20-10) have just four games left on the 2017-18 regular-season schedule. They trail the Nashville Predators (50-17-11) by five points.

Head coach Paul Maurice called it a marked improvement from Thursday’s ugly 6-2 defeat to the Blackhawks.

“That we were much better than we were (the game) before, so we corrected the things we needed to,” he said. “It was a grinder out there. I thought we built as the game went on — got better.”

His squad has suffered back-to-back regulation losses only five times this year.

“I haven’t found this year that we’ve had four or five games where, as a coach, you knew you were winning, but you knew you weren’t right. Games leading into Chicago we played pretty darn well,” Maurice said. “It wasn’t that a bunch of symptoms of real problems were there… we just had to get a little energy and get back to being sharp.”

A pair of squads with plenty of weaponry collided at Air Canada Centre, their first meeting in nearly six months after Toronto spoiled Winnipeg’s season-opener with a 7-2 rout.

The Leafs are third in the league in goals for (267) while the Jets (260) are fifth. But the big guns such as James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were silenced by Jets, led by the Lowry line.

They didn’t just lay the body on Leafs puck carriers, they maintained possession deep in enemy territory and were rewarded late in the middle frame on Copp’s sixth goal of the year — after going 19 without.

“They’ve done the same thing the whole year, and now it’s finally nice to see, as a teammate, for those guys to get rewarded,” Jets sniper Patrik Laine said. “I think they’re scoring huge goals for us. I’m just happy for them that they’re scoring. They’ve earned it.”

Last Tuesday, Tanev fired three goals in a 5-4 shootout win over the Boston Bruins. Spreading the scoring around will be key in the post-season, said Laine, who has been stuck on 43 goals for six games.

“If the top-two lines are not scoring, somebody else has to. And they’ve done that the last couple of games and that’s huge for us,” he said. “We’re going to need that in the playoffs because the top-two lines can’t score every night. We’re going to need some help.”

Patrick Marleau opened the scoring on the power play for the hosts at 2:02 of the second period, the only blemish on Connor Hellebuyck’s night. The Winnipeg netminder won his 41st game of the year, stopping 28 shots.

McElhinney allowed three goals on 29 shots. Jets centre Paul Stastny provided the screen on the Morrissey and Byfuglien drives from the point.

Morrissey’s sixth goal of the year evened the game 1-1 at 8:30 of the middle frame and Byfuglien ripped a power-play goal at 9:40.

“Yeah, real important for momentum. And I like where we were at that point in the game.” Maurice said of the Morrissey tally. “We’ve been pretty good at not changing our game. (Stastny) real good net-front screen. We’ve got guys from the back end that can shoot it, so stuck to the game and played pretty darn well.” 

Making matters worse for Toronto was the loss of defenceman Travis Dermott, who left the game late in the first period after taking a blast off the foot from Ben Chiarot.

“We’re a big strong team and get some zone time that you may not get. You take a good-skating D out (with Toronto playing) back-to-back and that’s a challenge for them,” Maurice said.

Defenceman Jacob Trouba rejoined the club after sitting out five games while recovering from a concussion and was solid, chipping in with an assist on Morrissey’s tying goal.

“He’s such a presence. Him and (Morrissey) are so formidable back there, with the job they do against the other teams’ best players. It just seems like they take away all of the life from the other teams’ best,” Wheeler said. “Trouba just right back in and had a great game.”

The Jets will spend today away from the rink, and then face back-to-backs against the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell