Jets find a way to win, set franchise record

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This article was published 11/01/2024 (635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nikolaj Ehlers said there was a good reason he went out for an optional skate when many of his teammates opted for rest and recovery.

The Winnipeg Jets winger didn’t like the way he played in Tuesday’s 5-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, so he wanted to see if he could wake up his legs and get the last road trip out of his system.

“I didn’t feel very good. Didn’t play very well,” Ehlers said on Wednesday. “Hopefully we’ll see (Thursday) if it worked.”

The answer is in and it was a resounding yes, with Ehlers using his signature speed to carry the puck into the offensive zone before beating Petr Mrazek with a snapshot to the glove side with 65 seconds to go to propel the Jets to a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night at Canada Life Centre.

“It just felt like every shot, he was able to just pick it off,” said Ehlers, tipping his cap to Mrazek, who finished with 28 saves. “He was fantastic tonight. So was LB, obviously. When you keep shooting and you keep shooting and it’s not going in, there’s some frustration that kicks in at some point. But the key point and what you saw tonight, is that at some point, it’s going to go in.”

When it finally went in twice in the third period, the Jets were able to improve to 28-9-4 and set a franchise record by extending their winning streak to eight games.

“Open ice, with the speed he has he’s going to back you off. He had some great looks in the third period, missed the net a couple times but he made a shot we needed him to make at the right time,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness, when asked about Ehlers. “We talk a lot about timely goals. That would be a timely goal.”

The Jets continue a four-game homestand Saturday night against the Philadelphia Flyers, who are in action on Friday night in Minnesota against the Wild.

Let’s take a closer look at what transpired:

1 The rally

Down by a goal going into the third period, the Jets found a way to do something they’d only done one other time this season, rallying with a pair of goals in the final four minutes to turn a potential loss into another victory.

“I don’t think we had our best stuff, especially in the second period. Resiliency. We kept battling. We’re comfortable in those one-goal, low-scoring games. We’ve played a lot of them this year. Just a good character win for us,” said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey. “We’ve been fortunately ahead or tied in a lot of games this year. That’s where you want to be. We put a pretty good press on in the third.”

First, it was Jets captain Adam Lowry, promoted to the top line for much of the game after Mark Scheifele left with a lower-body injury, making a strong move along the left-wing boards and finding Gabriel Vilardi on the doorstep for his 10th goal of the season with 3:29 left on the clock.

“A really nice feed from (Lowry). The way he protected that puck on the boards and was able to skate down and make that pass was pretty cool, pretty amazing,” said Ehlers. “Gabe, obviously, in tight, we’ve seen that many times before already this season, that he’s got some pretty good hands there. That was huge.”

Then, it was Lowry getting the puck to Ehlers to deliver his 15th goal of the season, which moved him into sole possession of second place on the Jets.

Vilardi became the sixth member of the Jets to hit double digits in goals this season when he delivered the equalizer.

2 The driver

It was another excellent effort on the back end from Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey, who was omnipresent in the contest. Morrissey got involved in the rush, was drawing penalties and finished with four shots on goal and seven shot attempts while taking 28 shifts for a game-high 26:56 of ice time. Morrissey is having another outstanding season and was going over the boards every shift for a good chunk of the third period.

Bowness was impressed with Morrissey’s play at both ends of the ice.

“How many two-on-ones did Mo break up?” Bowness asked rhetorically. “We talk about what an elite offensive player he is, and he is. But he must have broken up three two-on-ones.”

3 The injury

The Jets lost Scheifele to a lower-body injury in the opening minute of the second period.

Scheifele, who left Tuesday’s game after taking a deflected shot off his right ear, was skating through the neutral zone during a Jets’ power play when he pulled up favouring his left leg.

After making his way to the bench in some discomfort, Scheifele appears to say “my groin” to Jets winger Nino Niederreiter before heading down the tunnel for further evaluation. The Jets ruled him out of the rest of the contest shortly after he left the game, but it’s too early to tell the severity of the injury. Scheifele has appeared in all 41 games this season and has collected 41 points to go along with his excellent two-way play.

“Certainly, it’s a huge downer when (Scheifele) goes out like that. He’s been having a fantastic season,” said Morrissey. “I haven’t heard anything, so I’m not alluding to anything. I hope he’s back (Friday) at practice.”

Bowness said after the game that Scheifele would be re-evaluated on Friday.

 

4 The Midway point

Thursday’s game marked the official arrival of the midway point for the Jets, who are up to a league-leading 60 points. The record is similar to last season (26-14-1) when the Jets got off to a great start, but stumbled down the stretch before rallying to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs as the second wild card and eighth seed in the Western Conference.

What’s the biggest difference between last season and this one, during which the Jets have now gone 31 games of allowing three goals or fewer — and have allowed only three in one of the past 18 outings?

“I don’t know if there’s one specific thing that’s different,” said Lowry. “We’ve come to the rink this year just trying to get better, looking at things within our game where we can tweak or we can improve upon from last game. The biggest thing is probably just the chances we give up, last year versus this year.

“We’re a much sounder defensive club, and that just goes back to our structure, five-on-five. That just goes back into how we play in our D-zone, how hard we’re willing to work when we don’t have the puck to get it back, and things like that. I think we’re kind of looking forward and just trying to continue playing to the best of our ability.”

Lowry concedes there were some important lessons to learn from last season’s collapse.

“The biggest thing is not that we got complacent last year, but to know that you need to continue getting better. You’re going to get every team’s best,” said Lowry. “Teams are going to continue improving. As (former Jets head coach) Paul (Maurice) used to say, there’s a few different seasons. There’s the one before Christmas and there’s the one leading up to the all-star break. And then post-trade deadline. So looking at last year, you can take some lessons where maybe we started to believe our own hype or things like that.

“But this year we’ve done a really good job of going back and looking at the mistakes we made in the game, whether we won or we lost and trying to eliminate those for the next game. We’re just going to try and continue moving forward, not worry about last year. It’s a different group of guys and we’re really excited with where we’re at right now.”

5 Extra, extra

Jets winger Axel Jonsson-Fjallby was under the weather and skipped the morning skate, leaving him as a game-time decision. He took the pre-game warmup and was able to suit up. Had Jonsson-Fjallby not been able to go, Logan Stanley would have been in the lineup as the seventh D-man. Instead, he was a healthy scratch along with Declan Chisholm. Jets D-man Dylan DeMelo left the game momentarily in the first period after blocking a shot. He shook it off and returned to finish the contest with 19:15 of ice time.

 

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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