Jets gear up for another victory in Nashville

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This article was published 29/04/2018 (2693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — The Winnipeg Jets will look to do a little Tennessee two-step tonight and waltz out of Music City with a second consecutive victory on the road.

Winnipeg won Friday night’s opener 4-1 despite being significantly outplayed at times. The team wants to improve its performance in Game 2. They’re expecting a desperate Predators team that won’t want to dig themselves an even bigger hole before the series shifts to Winnipeg for Games 3 and 4.

“We know they’re gonna come out strong. They’re a good team. They play solid in both ends of the ice and we know it’s gonna be a tough test. We just have to be prepared to be at our best through the whole game and stick through it through thick and thin,” centre Mark Scheifele said following the morning skate at Bridgestone Arena.

No lineup changes are expected for the Jets, with Joel Armia, Mathieu Perreault and Dmitry Kulikov remaining sidelined with injuries. Michael Hutchinson, Joe Morrow, Tucker Poolman, Marko Dano and Shawn Matthias are expected to be the healthy scratches.

“Everyone’s excited. New game coming up tonight, just get back to the things that we’re good at. Playing fast, getting on the puck, playing at the right pace and trusting each other out there. We understand the situation, but it’s all about how we’re going to play tonight, said forward Brandon Tanev, who scored the opening goal in Friday’s win.

Winnipeg was outshot 48-19 in Game 1, but still snagged the victory, thanks in large part to Connor Hellebuyck’s terrific performance in net.

“There’s definitely room for improvement in our game. I don’t think we were exactly where we wanted to be, but come playoff time, you find a way to win and I thought we were pretty opportunistic and got a good game from our goalie and that’s a lot about what playoff hockey is,” defenceman Jacob Trouba said this morning.

Winnipeg has scored the first goal in all six playoff games so far, and in 10 consecutive games dating back to the regular season.

“We definitely went over some things we could have done better. It’s gonna be another tough test. We know we’re going to have to be even better than we were two nights ago. It’s gonna be another good game and we just need to get excited for it again,” said Scheifele, who scored twice in Game 1 and leads the Jets with six goals in six playoff games.

“We’ve worked real hard at living our days, handling them one at a time. So the win from last game doesn’t impact, certainly a casualness from our part going into Game 2. There’s lots of places that we can get better in our game, and we’re going to need to. They’ll push hard,” coach Paul Maurice said.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

PROJECTED JETS LINEUP:

G:

Hellebuyck

Mason

F:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler

Ehlers-Stastny-Laine

Tanev-Lowry-Little

Hendricks-Copp-Roslovic

D:

Morrissey-Trouba

Enstrom-Byfuglien

Chiarot-Myers