Jets fall to Hurricanes to cap road trip

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This article was published 09/03/2025 (186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Cole Perfetti still isn’t entirely sure where the puck hit his stick on the redirection goal that was taken off the board after video review at 6:14 of the second period.

The Winnipeg Jets forward showed tremendous hand-eye co-ordination in tipping home a point shot from Dylan Samberg in the second period, but the goal was taken off the board after video review determined his stick was above the crossbar at the time he made contact with the puck.

Although it simply became a footnote in what was a 4-2 loss for the Jets to the Carolina Hurricanes, the significance of the call being overturned stymied any shift in momentum that might have occurred if the goal stood.

Instead, the Jets didn’t get another puck past Frederick Andersen until the goalie had been pulled in favour of the extra attacker — scoring twice to make it close, but a power play goal from trade-deadline acquisition Logan Stankoven proved to be the game-winner.

“That was a close one. I wouldn’t have been surprised either way, honestly,” said Perfetti, who was also denied on a third-period breakaway. “Half my blade was over the net, half my blade was under it. Kind of just a review of where it hit my stick. Obviously, that would’ve been a good momentum swing for us and a big goal for us. Stuff happens and it’s just unfortunate that I didn’t catch it a couple inches lower.”

Jets head coach Scott Arniel wasn’t sure which way the review was going to go either.

“Those are crap shoots for me when it comes to those high sticks. I don’t know how they go about it, the crossbar or if Perfetti is taller than the crossbar,” said Arniel. “We thought it was a goal, but it is what it is.”

The Jets, who slipped to 44-17-4, return home to face the New York Rangers on Tuesday in what will be a two-game pit stop at Canada Life Centre.

“Our execution was just a little bit off,” said Jets forward Morgan Barron. “I don’t think there were any issues with our game plan, but it just kind of got away from what we wanted to do there for a little bit. And we created opportunities when we were on our game, but it just wasn’t consistent through the whole 60 minutes.”

Let’s take a closer look at this one.

THE INJURY – The Jets lost centre Vladislav Namestnikov in the third period after taking a shoulder up high from Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal, who was given an interference minor on the play.

Arniel said that Namestnikov was placed in concussion protocol and would be re-evaluated after the Jets return home.

“Yeah. He went into protocol,” said Arniel. “I thought it was a hit to the head (by Staal). Maybe go to five minutes, and if they don’t realize that it isn’t they can reduce from there. I think that was more than two minutes.”

Namesntikov had drawn the ire of the Hurricanes during the first period when he caught Sebastian Aho with a hard check that resulted in an interference minor.

Lowry was used with Nikolaj Ehlers and Perfetti after Namestnikov left the game and that’s an option the Jets could go to.

The topic of the second-line centre spot was definitely a talking point this week as the NHL trade deadline came and went – and it will continue to be if Namestnikov is sidelined.

Much like when Lowry missed nearly a month of action with a lower-body injury, the Jets will need to lean on their depth to push through.

Having Morgan Barron move to the middle for the past two games provides another option for the Jets to consider moving forward, along with David Gustafsson and Rasmus Kupari, once he’s been cleared to return to action after suffering a concussion against the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

“This was another big test against a fast team,” said Arniel. “He’s learning on the fly here so I tried to put him in some situations, whether that’s D-zone faceoffs or he got out a couple of times against Aho. Those are things for him that he’s just going to continue to work on.”

For the second time in as many games, Barron won five of nine draws for a 56 per cent efficiency rating.

THE TOUGH OUTING – The Jets’ third pairing of Logan Stanley and Colin Miller was on the ice for both even-strength goals against in this one.

On the first goal, Stanley held the line in the offensive zone, but Mark Jankowski snuck behind him, took a pass from Scott Morrow and then proceeded to beat Connor Hellebuyck with a perfect shot with 1:55 to go in the first period.

Former Jets forward Jack Roslovic set up Jankowski to extend the lead to 2-0 at 5:21 of the second period.

Rolsovic snuck his pass between the skate and stick of Hellebuyck and Jankowski won his battle in front of the net with both Stanley and Miller caught below the goal line after the Jets were unable to get the puck out of the defensive zone.

“The (Hurricanes) are a shot-volume team. They attack the net. They threw some pucks in there and that was the second one, kind of a scramble. The first one, we got beat on a rush,” said Arniel. “At the end of the day, we knew what Carolina was throwing at us. We just didn’t get to our A-game fast enough.”

This isn’t to pin the loss on these players by any stretch, but the competition for time on that third pairing is about to ramp up with Luke Schenn expected to make his Jets’ debut on Tuesday.

It will be interesting to see if Stanley remains on the left side, if Miller is used on his off-side or if Arniel considers going back to Haydn Fleury in that spot.

Jets defenceman Neal Pionk was limping noticeably after the game, so that situation will be monitored before we find out for sure which pairings might be used in the next outing.

THE KEY PLAY – Perfetti had his goal taking off the board for tipping the puck with a high stick 53 seconds after the Hurricanes made it 2-0 and that stymied any momentum the Jets might have got from the redirection.

THE THREE STARS – 1) Mark Jankowski, Hurricanes, scored a pair of goals.  2) Seth Jarvis, Hurricanes, the Winnipegger scored an empty-netter to seal it, but he was all over the ice in this one, recording six shots on goal and one hit. 3) Dylan Samberg, Jets, had three shots on goal and three blocked shots in another workmanlike effort.

EXTRA, EXTRA – Jets centre Mark Scheifele received a 10-minute misconduct with 6:17 to go in the contest. Scheifele was assessed a minor for holding the stick in the offensive zone originally and his night came to a close after he shared his displeasure with referee Mitch Dunning.

Hellebuyck made his 49th start of the season and finished with 23 saves.

Samberg had a scare when he blocked a one-timer by Aho with his left hand, but he didn’t miss a shift and finished with 23:31 of ice time.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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