Brilliant Brossoit blanks Ducks

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This article was published 15/03/2024 (573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It appeared to be a colossal mismatch on paper and that’s exactly how it played out on the ice, with the Winnipeg Jets roasting the Anaheim Ducks 6-0 Friday night at Canada Life Centre.

The list of things that went well for the home team is a long one.

Goaltender Laurent Brossoit made 21 saves for his second consecutive shutout. Tyler Toffoli scored his first two goals with his new team. A pair of defencemen snapped lengthy droughts. The power play went a perfect three-for-three.

Perhaps most important of all given the organization’s recent pitch to the community to increase sagging ticket sales — all of this happened in front of a raucous full house, with the fifth sellout of the season. Safe to say the 15,225 inside the downtown rink had plenty to cheer about.

Winnipeg rebounded nicely from a 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night, improving to 42-19-5 and moving into a three-way tie for first place in the Central Division with Colorado and Dallas. However, the Jets have a game in hand on the Avalanche, and two in hand on the Stars.

“We managed the puck so much better,” said coach Rick Bowness. “We made the right decisions at their blue-line. If they were gapped up then we put it behind them and went to work. If they gave us the blue-line we made the play.”

Anaheim, which played the night before in Minnesota (2-0 loss), recently traded away a couple players (Adam Henrique, Sam Carrick) and was without several other injured skaters (Trevor Zegras, Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, Radko Gudas), falls to 23-41-3, which is the third-worst overall record in the NHL.

“We made the right decisions at their blue-line. If they were gapped up then we put it behind them and went to work. If they gave us the blue-line we made the play.”–Rick Bowness

Here’s a further breakdown of how this one played out:

1 Brilliant Brossoit — Is there a better backup goaltender in the NHl right now than Brossoit? He’s making a rather compelling case, stretching his shutout streak to more than seven periods (141 minutes and 40 seconds) dating back to a 5-2 win in Buffalo on March 3.

The pending unrestricted free agent followed that up with a 3-0 triumph on March 8 in Seattle, and now this latest clean sheet which included a few acrobatic saves and a stone, cold robbery of leading Ducks scorer Frank Vatrano in the waning minutes of the third period.

“It’s feeling pretty good and then obviously the team in front of me,” Brossoit said of what’s going so well.

“I’m going to try not to get too high on these because you know the opponents that I was playing in those two. Have to be honest with myself and make sure that I’m not getting too casual and because both games my team played phenomenal in front of me.”

“Have to be honest with myself and make sure that I’m not getting too casual and because both games my team played phenomenal in front of me.”–Laurent Brossoit

Brossoit is now 12-4-2 through 18 starts, with a sparkling 1.99 goals-against-average and .927 save-percentage. He’s going to get paid this summer by an organization looking for a potential starter, which isn’t going to happen here in Winnipeg with Vezina Trophy favourite Connor Hellebuyck locked in for seven more seasons.

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2 Connor’s revenge — This was the first time Kyle Connor and Ryan Strome had been on the ice together since back on Dec. 10 in southern California, when Winnipeg’s top goal scorer was taken out with a dirty knee-on-knee hit from the Anaheim forward.

Strome was given a five-minute major and game misconduct, but received no further discipline from the league. Connor, meanwhile, would miss the next 16 games with a sprained MCL.

It’s not in Connor’s nature to go looking for a pound of flesh, but the 2021-22 Lady Byng Trophy winner got a bit of revenge Friday in the best way he knows how — putting the puck in the back of the net.

His perfect tip of a Dylan DeMelo point shot beat John Gibson, putting his club up 1-0 at 16:20 of the first period. Connor is up to 28 goals in 50 games, and you wonder how much higher than total would be had he not missed five weeks of action.

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3 Duck hunting — There’s nothing “fowl” about Nate Schmidt’s game when he faces the Ducks. He’s has two goals in 55 games this season — both have come against Anaheim.

He first found the back of the net Jan. 5 at Honda Centre, when he scored the game-winner. The second came Friday night, when his shot hit a pair of Ducks players to elude a surprised Gibson.

Schmidt, the ultimate team player, credited Nino Niederreiter with a perfect screen.

“I was shocked it didn’t hit him, actually,” he said.

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4 Saving the best for last — There’s no better team in the final 20 minutes this season then the Jets, and they flexed their third-period muscles again Friday with four more goals, giving them a league-leading 86.

First up was DeMelo, who unleashed a bomb that eluded Gibson and was his first goal since way back on Oct. 14 — the second game of the year.

Next up was Toffoli, who had a couple quiet games to start his Jets career after being acquired by the New Jersey Devils at the trade deadline.

That wasn’t the case in this one, as he ripped a shot right off a faceoff win from linemate Sean Monahan to make it 4-0 at 8:07, then had a Mark Scheifele pass bank in off his skate on the power play at 11:05 to really a make this a rout.

“It was awesome,” Toffoli said of the crowd’s roar after he lit the lamp for the first time. “I got a little taste of it in our first game, with the standing ovation too. Definitely a special moment and obviously nice to get my first one here and hopefully, keep rolling.”

Toffoi is now up to 28 goals, which is tied with Connor in that department.

“I should have had four or five there by the end of it,” Toffoli said, referring to a few more quality chances that Gibson stopped.

“You know what, it was one of those games I thought we played really well. It was a matter of time before we started kind of piling some on. We were doing a good job of hemming them in and staying on their D, that was just a really good game for us.”

Finally, Mason Appleton finished off the scoring with five seconds left in the game, converting a beautiful spinning backhand pass from Adam Lowry. The power-play goal gives him a dozen on the year.

“You know what, it was one of those games I thought we played really well. It was a matter of time before we started kind of piling some on. We were doing a good job of hemming them in and staying on their D, that was just a really good game for us.”–Tyler Toffoli

“Just sustained pressure. You felt it coming the whole game,” Brossoit said of the floodgates opening.

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5 Extra, extra — Josh Morrissey had three assists, while Nikolaj Ehlers had a pair of helpers.

Scheifele celebrated his 31st birthday on Friday. He missed Wednesday’s game with the flu but was back in his usual spot on the top line, with Connor and Alex Iafallo on his wing.

The Jets made several lineup changes. Rasmus Kupari came out for Scheifele, while forward Cole Perfetti and defencemen Dylan Samberg and Colin Miller were also healthy scratches after facing the Predators. Schmidt, Logan Stanley and David Gustafsson all took their spots.

Winnipeg won all three games against Anaheim this season by a combined score of 13-3.

“It’s a good step for our group. It’s a big road trip. I can’t wait to be standing here at the end of it and see how we’re doing.”–Nate Schmidt

The Jets now head out on the road for their longest trip of the season, playing five games over the course of eight days starting Sunday in Columbus.

“Hey, let’s keep it coming,” said Schmidt. “It’s a good step for our group. It’s a big road trip. I can’t wait to be standing here at the end of it and see how we’re doing.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg